Pretty Caged Birdie
by Sigmu
Summary: A different take on Dragon Games where Faybelle was only pretending to be the minion, Apple never got to apologize to Raven, And Raven is more broken up by Apple's betrayal than anybody anticipated. Warning: Faybelle/Raven pairing and angst. For Fayven fans who like angst and hurt/comfort. It may go up in rating as time goes on.
1. Chapter 1

A/n: AU of Faybelle/Raven, no relation to any of my other fics even though there are some elements that may or may not seem similar or reference other fics, references to Dragon Games… only with a twist. Basically it's the same line as the movie, except Faybelle and her mother manage to outsmart the Evil Queen, and Apple gets poisoned, (for _real_ poisoned), by Faybelle long before Apple reaches Raven who is hiding out in the woods with the pixies. Really this is just for my surprising number of Faybelle/Raven fans as well as those who like angst.

And my head-cannon version of Faybelle _does_ clash with the cannon a fair bit… so expect a variation in that before you read. Just a warning.

XXX

Raven sometimes wondered whether or not she had traded one metaphorical cage for another. She had wanted to distance herself from her mother and the fairytales as much as she could, and now that she was here she was certainly free of that danger.

However if certain events had not transpired Raven was sure that she could've freed herself from the fairytales all on her own and it wasn't like she had ran to this fate with open arm exactly. She had just wanted- no, she needed to ensure that her mother could not harm any more people ever again if she had ever been let loose.

And it wasn't like Raven was locked up tight in her new cage, no, that had been the old cage where she had to pick the locks with her rebellion against tradition, here in her new cage the door was not locked, in fact Raven was quite certain that the door was hanging wide open.

But the question that was bothering Raven the most was… why she was staying in her new cage so willingly?

It was a comfortable cage, and it wasn't like Raven was unhappy here… it was just that she was… confused as to why she was so reluctant to go. She should be going shouldn't she? It was what everyone here; the ones who were sheltering her in this cage were expecting right? It was all just… temporary. It was supposed to be temporary but…

She could not bring herself to leave.

The witch curled up further in on herself on the wide balcony's railing, the clammy sheen of sweat covering the underside of her feet sticking to the polished black rock as she hugged her legs closer to her body, the girl staring out into the distant desert with a troubled furrow in her eyes and brows.

"If you keep that up my cousin Moss is going to think that your suicidal as well as depressed from certain events that "would leave any sane person positively traumatized", his words not mine." A dry voice snorted from the doorway.

"There's a big pool of water right beneath me." Raven pointed down to the decorative outdoor pool as she spoke. "And I've been underwater fishing in my homeland since I was a tiny witchling. I hardly see how this can be considered suicidal."

"Moss likes to overreact. It's how he shows that he cares about people." Faybelle rolled her eyes as she steps forward and leans over Raven in what would normally be seen as a predatory manor but it is a testament to how Raven has been around long enough to catch that fondly exasperated slant of the fairy's eyebrows and mouth. Raven bats her eyes innocently, which causes Faybelle to fluster because she knows that she's been caught being all warm and sentimental… again.

"Did Harris drop off the paperwork mom said I needed to sign my name to?" Faybelle coughed, embarrassed and looking to change the subject. "Not that I'm looking forward to going through boring sanitation requests for how many dozen county territories who still need the ruling house to approve such mundane things instead of electing their own officials-"

"I already took care of them." Raven interrupted. "They're on your desk waiting for you to look over them."

"My signature is just as valid as yours remember?" Raven smirked cutely at Faybelle's wide-eyed stare. "I figured I might as well do more around here than just my obligatory spousal duties since I've been staying for so long."

It takes a moment for the shock to fade from the fairy's face. "Practicing for your eventual ascension to your father's throne and reigning over both of your home kingdoms? I can see how getting your feet wet in such a big territory as ours would help you with that." Faybelle hummed in understanding.

"Actually I was getting my feet wet so that I could better make a decision." Raven turned her attention back to the desert peeking over the distant horizon of the oasis.

Faybelle blinked in confusion. "…And that decision would be…?"

"Whether or not I want to stay here as your wife." Raven stated calmly, ignoring the way that Faybelle seemed to choke on air.

XXX

 ** _Many moons ago…_**

 _It had been an act of necessity; Raven knew that she could be forced into following her mother's footsteps in far too many ways than what she liked to think about, that the Rebellion could be easily disbanded given the right circumstances, and that her mother posed a threat too dangerous not to take precautions against._

 _Thronecomming had taught her this harsh lesson all too well and so that was why Raven had decided to take a chance, put everything out onto the table and hope for the best._

 _She made a deal with the Evil Fairy._

 _"So we are agreed." The woman intoned regally as she stared Raven down, the witch could practically feel her father fidget nervously behind her, Faybelle had stood beside her mother, seemingly far more interested in the architecture of the ancient ruins of what was once the original Evil Queen's palace. "That if the Evil Queen should be let out of her prison, or if you are forced against your will to enact the part of the Evil Queen, that we shall put a stop to it and in return you will do what is necessary to ensure that the Thorn Clan inherits all rights to the Evil Queen title as well as sacrifice your family name in thanks."_

 _"Yes." Raven agreed, poking her finger with the tip of a ceremonial dagger and dripping her blood onto the charmed parchment lying upon the table between the two families. "I will take whatever steps necessary to ensure that my mother never succeeds in her plans and that the verbal name of Queen will perish in my family with the completion of this contract if it is ever necessary to act upon it. So is the will of the sacred way of the ancient laws."_

 _It is then; after the witch speaks the final words of the contract that Faybelle finally turns her apathetic attention away from what is left of the ceiling. She says nothing but her curious gaze is so intensely penetrating that Raven can't help the involuntary shiver that runs down her spine._

 _"May I be permitted to ask you to clarify that it is just the Queen name that my daughter would have to give up?" Raven's father asks warily as the Evil Fairy gently rolls up and stows the signed parchment away inside a bone and metal tube (a highly traditional ceremonial object from the dessert fairy lands which meant that this meeting was being taken seriously) that has been slung over her shoulder._

 _"Of course." The Evil Fairy assured the bells decorating her wild elk-horned crown jingling softly as she inclined her head. "I can assure you that the family name and duties that you daughter will assume will be far more… suited for her."_

 _The Good King relaxes and Raven knows that he will begin quietly making arrangements for her to gain his last name and ascend into the title of Good King after graduation as soon as they are done here._

 _Faybelle smirks; her expression is all teeth and feral eyes. "See you on Monday little Raven." The girl leers before she follows her mother out._

 _Everything after that goes back to normal (or as normal as things ever got at school) Faybelle never acknowledges that the contract for their marriage in the event of an emergency had been made and neither does Raven, and as time passes the witch slowly starts to hope that things may turn out for her and that there would be no need for a Thorn Clan intervention._

Much, much later Raven has no choice but to admit that such a concept was a pipe dream at best.

XXX

 _Faybelle knows that Raven is unaware that the witch had signed herself up to be betrothed to her (or one of her cousins if Faybelle protests against being wed enough, her mother cares far too much for her heir and daughter to force Faybelle into a marriage that she does not want), her mother knew it, hell half her closest extended family knew it by the time the news made it's rounds around the relative-gossip lines. A lone human parent raised Raven, in a human kingdom for most of her life for ancestor's sake! It was clearly obvious with the way the witch went around acting as if the title of Evil Queen was the worst thing ever conceived in the universe._

 _And okay, yeah sure, the current Evil Queen did a lot to muck up the character image, and it didn't help that Apple White was so… uncharacteristically unsympathetic when it came to the weight of the dishonor that was laid upon Raven's shoulders (secretly Faybelle conceded that she'd rebel too, on a small personal scale, if Apple was her princess, just to spite the annoying girl and make her fret and worry until one day after graduation Faybelle poisons the girl out of the blue with any stinking piece of fruit that was not an apple, because family honor meant everything and perfect princesses like Apple White were just asking for it in Faybelle's opinion), but to go as far as to start a full scale rebellion? Ludicrous!_

 _There was a great deal of honor that came from being a fairytale villain, the position held prestige and respect amongst many great nations and worlds, sure, a majority of the fairytales had strictly human heroes and damsels that usually won out against the big bad witch, fairy, or non-human (she couldn't be certain if this went for all fairytales though there was just too many for her to really keep up, she supposed that there was one or two that was different than the dreary norm), but still one had to consider the history behind everything, back when the stories were being made everyone was at war, for villain ancestry the meaner you were and the more powerful you were the more weight you carried in the world, the more respect you got from other countries, hex it was still true Lizzie Hearts was respected by practically everybody and she was a villain._

 _Faybelle's mother blamed certain persons that came out of her generation that had driven the honor of villains to such a sorry state (and it wasn't just the evil Queen's doing apparently, much to Faybelle's surprise), time was that villains had more respect amongst their hero and damsel counterparts, now… well look at Ginger, everyone knew that she only had one known true cannibal in the family centuries ago and that none of the Crumb descendants were in danger of getting devoured, and yet they still fled like headless chickens!_

 _The reputation of the villain community was in a sorry state, Faybelle would admit, but that did not mean that the answer was to rebel against fairytales altogether! It would take time and patience but as long as nobody tries conquering everything like a barbaric idiot, like how the current Evil Queen ran things (who was far too two-dimensionally clichéd in the dastardly villain department according to her mother) then they'd get their respect and reputation back. Raven, Ginger, and all the rest of the Rebels were cowards as far as Faybelle could see, fairytales for villains could be twisted, rules bent, their predecessors were able to make good of bad endings by craftily turning it to their advantage, it wasn't like they were damsels who did not have a choice in who they ended up with at the end of things, once the deed was done they didn't have to stick around, villains could just take off and do whatever the hell they damn wanted! Most celebrated being free at last from the restrictive rules of the Ever After kingdom and it's school._

 _Often these celebrations held the consequence of surprise pregnancies but hey, without such traditions for fairy and witch villains Faybelle wouldn't be here, Faybelle's own mother actually had no clue as to who Faybelle's father was and for all the older woman knew Kitty could very well be Faybelle's half-sister._

 _Raven just didn't understand just how good she had it! Villains had way more freedoms than other characters did, they held a power that held more weight than the good character's, there was an honor in their titles that stemmed farther back than the fairytales themselves with a clear known history of being the strongest of the strong during the times of epic wars, and best of all Raven didn't have to work for it to be known as a great villain in the making! Faybelle once witnessed the witch sneeze and a small aura of purple jumped out of her hair for barely a second and that had been more than enough to leave everyone scrambling for cover!_

 _Faybelle on the other hand had to work at keeping her image and respect up, the fairy blamed it all on Briar's uppity little friends. While her princess (after much exhausted instruction) understood that while Faybelle was fond of Briar, she was not any princess's villainous pet._

 _Briar understood this, Briar's friends, the same people that had no troubles fearing Raven-freaking Queen like a respectable villain, however did not understand at all and continuously either treated Faybelle as an amusing circus attraction, forgot their proper place in regarding her, or just patted her on the head and said that she was simply misunderstood._

 _No respect what-so-ever. She didn't even like Briar's friends so why they never left her be and treated her like she was beneath them for daring to refuse to join their dreary little gossip groups and shopping sprees that never failed to reduce her to catatonic boredom was beyond her. Briar always tried to assure that they meant no disrespect for not considering that she wasn't into the same stuff as they were and that they did respect her as a villain but it never escaped Faybelle's attention that they never extended the same treatment to Raven, who was a lot closer to the lot of them than she was._

 _Which was why it was so frustrating that Raven had decided to rebel; Raven could be the example villain that the community needed to gain back it's respect, she didn't have to work that hard at it, just ramp up the bewitching charm, cool down the need to be quite so approachable, denounce her own mother as a weak imitation of a true Evil Queen, and over the span of several years it could work in her and the rest of their favors._

 _So big whoop, who cared about who had a predecessor that was all mean and evil? That's how everything in the world as they knew it started in the first place! The courageous thing to do was not to rebel and run away, the best thing to do was to build the image back up and redefine the old expectations and the honor codes._

 _Faybelle prayed that she'd never have to make good on the contract, the only thing the witch had going for her was her looks and her cooking (hey Faybelle may have high standards but she wasn't dead, she had enough of a healthy disposition to appreciate the important stuff!), Raven would make a lousy wife and would probably fight tooth and nail to either get out of the marriage once she found out about it or divorce at the soonest available opportunity. As things were usually done nowadays with fairy contracts in regards to this nature, and Faybelle knew, just knew, that she'd be glad to be rid of the girl just as much as Raven would be glad to be rid of her._

Years later Faybelle finds that she doesn't mind admitting that she was glad to have been so wrong.

XXX

 ** _More recent moons…_**

Her mother grinned toothily when Faybelle dumbly admitted the next day that Raven had been considering staying with them, perhaps indefinitely.

Faybelle was nearly blown away the day that her mother showed that she was rather fond of Raven, even more so when her mother started to drop hints for Faybelle to try to make her marriage to the witch a bit more permanent.

Faybelle didn't know what had gotten into the woman recently, why someone who had seen the Queen family as _the_ number one enemy of the Thorn Clan to suddenly take a shine to the heir of said family was just beyond Faybelle, and she told her mother this.

The Evil Fairy cackled at her daughter, saying that anybody who not only betrayed the Evil Queen to such a degree but also helped in taking her out was absolved of any enemy declaration.

Faybelle could see how that made sense, but why her mother wanted to encourage keeping Raven around now that her usefulness to them was over confused her.

At that the Evil Fairy reminded her daughter of the current dire situation that remained of the villain community's reputation amongst other fairytales and the issues that came with it.

Raven was a valuable resource to them, as the Rebel leader people respected so much she held much weight, even more so now that she sacrificed her "freedom" in order to secure the safety of her friends and former school. She was the key to ensure that they got some respect back and stood on equal ground with the protagonist kingdoms, especially with the Ever After kingdom whose queen had been shouting out her propaganda that _she_ was the greatest ruler of the fairytale lands to ever grace the worlds and had been using the Evil Queen as an example of how fair rulers of proper breeding were always better than the villains and non-royalty.

Faybelle supposed that was a smart move on their end… and over the past several weeks the fairy admitted to herself that she was beginning to… like Raven. Now that the fairytales and everything was all behind them Raven was… rather bearable, and the witch's grasp on fairy laws and traditional concepts were pretty astute despite Faybelle's early assumptions so there was wiggle room to move with the witch so that they could make all of this work...

However there was a concern that Faybelle had yet to voice but knew she'd have to address with her bride sooner than later, even though it dealt with sensitive subjects that someone who was not a gruff villain would be better equipped to do the talking.

But still Raven was obviously grieving over the whole situation that led her here; Faybelle suspected that the fate of the girl's mother, moving away from school indefinitely, and being forced to become married to Faybelle were all things that Raven could get over easily and adapt to with grace.

However the idiocy and the betrayal of nearly the whole school plus the gross betrayal of Apple White _specifically_ , Faybelle knew would haunt the witch perhaps for the rest of her days.

And then there was the whole issue of Raven forgiving Faybelle.

XXX

 ** _Many moons ago at the incident regarding the Dagon Games…_**

 _Faybelle sighs irritably; she hates it when she has to admit that she was wrong…_

 _But this time she's gotta side with Raven, perhaps rebellion was the only option she had in all of this._

 _The Evil Queen had gotten out, actually escaped prison, and Snow White, the queen and ruler who was supposed to protect them from such criminals and ensure that said criminals never saw the light of day again pardoned the moth-fucking-Evil Queen and all for what? A chance to rekindle and old rivalry, just like it had been in the good old days, to have a chance at trying to recreate the past and treating the real threat the Evil Queen posed as if it was all just a game!_

 _The bitch! And Apple, the perfect princess whom everybody looked up to was agreeing with this whole situation!_

 _Was this the lunacy that Raven had to deal with all the time? No wonder she wanted nothing to do with fairytales!_

 _It did not take long, as predicted, for everything to go to hell in a hand basket._

 _It was a good thing that Faybelle's mother had been right about the evil Queen being narcissistic and socially inept, the woman had bought Faybelle's fangirl act hook line and sinker and allowed the fairy to become a minion. Faybelle knew from her mother's teachings that the best way to defeat your enemy was to make them underestimate you, make it seem as though you are harmless but useful, allowing you to get close enough to take them down before they even realized what was going on._

 _And so far it was working… despite the carnage that was transpiring around her._

 _The dragon games arena went up in flames (obviously not goody-two-shoes Raven's doing but apparently the people at school were just too dense to see it), the Evil Queen had taken over the school as it's new Headmistress (honestly, this was a surprise to people?), the school's leading staff were now out of commission (Faybelle had been the one to help in transforming said staff into easily managed and contained tiny animals and locking the lot of them into glass terrariums), Apple was blissfully clueless (and therefore useless), And Raven (in an unexpected show of desperation) was going to run as far away from it all as possible._

 _What a mess._

 _At least she was able to call home, her mother and a sizable tactical force from the homelands was preparing for an epic fight and were waiting along the outer fringes of the forest that bordered the village outside of the campus for the most opportune time to strike. Added to this, Faybelle had discretely successfully set up several inconspicuous traps and poisoned foods under the Evil Queen's nose for the woman to stumble across eventually, all was ready for the attack._

 _Save for the matter of Raven planning on running away._

 _Faybelle kicked herself for needing to try to catch up to Raven before she left and explain things, it was obvious that Raven had bought Faybelle's act just as well as her mother had and since the girl still was clueless about the full ramifications of villain honor and the importance of that blasted contract she didn't know that staying around for the Thorn Clan to collect her was in her best interests as well as Faybelle's._

 _But of course not everything in the universe could go by plan, it was just so freaking typical that Faybelle had to have missed Raven (and a surprising number of others… rather smart others with actual self-preservation instincts) making their escape._

 _So she called her mother and hoped that the woman's time as the Evil Fairy paid off because Faybelle was certainly at a loss as to how to proceed._

 _Plan B was risky, and there was a high probability of casualties if things went wrong, but there was a chance that there would be far less of a body count now than before. If Faybelle did this right she could twist this so that the Evil Queen was more concerned about finding Raven than she was about a few extra "students" and "plants" appearing around her stolen domain unannounced (fairy glamour and camouflage magic was the best there was after all)._

 _And Faybelle knew for a fact that Raven still cared about Apple, for anybody to have to put up with the princess's false views on what real villainy was they had to care a great deal, and that she'd come running if the blonde was in trouble. If Raven believed that the Evil Queen would do anything harmful to Apple then she'd come to save her for sure._

 _Perhaps there might be an opportunity in this as well, maybe… Faybelle could just cut the wait to graduation and poison Apple now, when it was all said and done Faybelle could prove that she was the one who fulfilled the story and by then she'd be married to Raven long enough to make the title of Evil Queen legally hers._

 _Now she just needed to find a way to get the message to Raven so that the witch could be lured back…_

XXX

 _Raven didn't know what to think as she collapsed to the ground beside Nevermore in the pixie hideout that they had stopped to rest in._

 _She should have known better than to simply trust that Faybelle could be trustworthy enough to do the right thing when it came to anything! She had been her last hope in stopping her mother if something like this ever did happen! And yet here she was getting all cozy with her family's supposed nemesis and doing her mother's bidding with a smile on her face!_

 _Thorn Clan family honor her foot, the fairy's betrayal of their contract hurt almost as badly as when Apple…_

 _As when Apple… let her mother free, defended to horrible woman and admitted to letting the Evil Queen free with a big smile of her perfect blushing face…_

 _Maddie walked up and placed a hand on Raven's shoulder, the contact of kind human touch was enough to ground Raven enough to take control over the tears that had been threatening to spill over._

 _In the background the witch could hear the comings and goings of the native pixies and of the others who were making preparations to settle in for the night, she focuses on that and her breathing, she can hear the three pixies who led them here chittering worriedly around her but Holly kindly takes them to the side and explains why the Evil Queen's presence has hit Raven harder than anybody else at school._

 _Raven breathes evenly when she hears sounds of understanding and thoughtfulness from their hosts, the witch bravely peeks up to see Holly and the others looking at her gently._

 _"They say that they trust that you won't hurt them and that they sympathize with how difficult this must be for you." Holly translates._

 _Raven lets out a wet huff. "Thank you." She sniffles weakly._

 _The touching moment is broken when Maddie's phone rang._

 _"Oopsies I forgot to turn this off- oh… Raven it's… you have to see this." Maddie's tone sobered considerably, causing her classmates and best friend to become slightly alarmed._

 _Raven felt as though she was unable to breathe as she read the message._

 _"I have to go save Apple." The witch leaped to her feet, stumbling slightly in her rush to get back onto Nevermore. "That was Faybelle announcing to everyone on a mass hext that the Evil Queen has revealed her true intensions to conquer Ever After and is about to sentence Apple and her mother to their deaths!"_

XXX

 _Faybelle took a deep, calming breath; The Evil Queen was buying her deception, the woman did not know of the Thorn Clan's plan to take the woman out once and for all._

 _…She did buy Faybelle's act didn't she? Had Faybelle perhaps acted a little too syrupy? Kissed ass a little bit too eagerly? Damn these nerves!_

 _Well… she was going to find out, it had been bad luck that the Evil Queen had decided to visit Apple just when Faybelle had been planning on using the spare poisoned apples that she had on hand (the rest of the batch was waiting patiently in the Evil Queen's upcoming meal as a backup, backup plan- plan J to be precise- incase all other attempts on the Evil Queen failed) and was going to see if she could_ _quietly get Apple White to eat one thus ensuring that Faybelle would be the one to have completed the Evil Queen's role in Raven's stead, just as the contract promised would be her right to do while also ensuring that Apple could not fight her on the whole deal._

 _She still had a chance… as long as Raven did not show up too early and mess this up. Her mother, the Evil Fairy could take care of the Evil Queen, now was the time to worry about wrapping up things on her and Raven's end._

 _It had to work, for her honor it just had to._

XXX

 _Apple nearly cried out in relief when she spied a cloaked Raven sneaking past the dragon stables, not caring to take note of the odd scheming expression on the witch's face as the princess ran up to her._

 _"Raven! Oh thank the ancestors I found you, I am so sorry about all of this! You were so right! Your mother has not changed. She wasn't the one to change at all, I have, and for the worse, I was so selfish for thinking that releasing her would change your mind! But I want to change for the better now, I swear!" Apple's words come out in a rush when she comes close enough to the other._

 _Raven blinks owlishly at the princess, a badly suppressed wince comes from the witch when Apple reaches for the other's free hand._

 _"I am sorry Raven." Apple's voice swells with emotions of sorrow and regret. "Can you ever forgive me?"_

 _Raven takes a deep breath before nodding; a smile that is just a little bit too wide and feral overtakes the witch's face._

 _"Good." Apple sighs, before looking at the basket in Raven's unoccupied fist strangely. "What's the basket for?"_

 _Raven nods her head to the woods and then to the basket a few times before shrugging slightly._

 _"Oh you need food before you go on your journey." Apple readily assumes as she takes a peek under the basket's lid. "Ooh you managed to swipe some pretty red apples! My favorite!" The princess squeals in delight. "I hope you don't mind… but can I take one? I haven't been able to eat very much today so…"_

 _Raven huffs a snicker under her breath and nods again._

 _"Thank you Raven!" Apple cheered as she reached into the basket and took out a fruit._

 _"By the way, why are you being so silent?" The princess queries before she takes a dainty bite._

 _The earsplitting scream that slices through the air startles Apple so badly that she chokes a bit on her food when she swallows and coughs violently over the sudden lightheadedness when she turns around to see-_

 _…Raven, utterly panicked and jumping off of Nevermore feet from the ground and running (well… mostly tripping but at a very fast pace) her way towards Apple as the Raven imposter begins running forward to meet the witch halfway._

 _The lightheadedness gets worse and it's difficult to stay upright now but Apple struggles to stay awake and see what's going on._

 _Apple makes a weak sound of distress as Raven, the real Raven, struggles in the imposter's grip, howling to be set free, the witch's desperate wails almost feel as though they are trying to bring down the sky itself with their force and volume._

 _That's when the imposter manages to turn Raven around and silence the witch by sealing their lips over her own, Apple sees a flash of blue magic which passes into Raven's body, the witch collapsing limply in the other's hold within seconds._

 _The last thing that Apple sees before she pitches to the side and the world turns dark is a pair of fairy wings and a head of black hair turning as white as sun-bleached bone._


	2. Chapter 2

Raven heaved a discrete sigh as she shifted more comfortably on her rune decorated throne made from carved bone and fairy-wood, (which sat beside Faybelle's identical throne and the two of them were to the left side of the Evil Fairy's impressively larger and more finely decorated throne, as was tradition for the heir and the spouse of the heir to be seen in these public hearings as the literal left hand to the ruling monarch) and tuned out the droning from one of the trade ministers giving their report.

It wasn't supposed to be this way; her mother was never supposed to have escaped, and to have Apple of all people let the woman out of her prison…

But it had happened, and Faybelle played the roll of the starry-eyed wannabe apprentice well, playing along and seemingly doing the Evil Queen's bidding all for the promise of a bit of praise, her mother never once suspecting that Faybelle had discretely called in the Calvary in the form of one eager Evil Fairy.

Raven wasn't even certain that her mother even had time to register what had happened! From the Evil Fairy's (who was now her _mother-in-law_ , _good gods_ …) account Faybelle had set up the sharpened poisoned needle of a decorative note holder (which had been in the shape of a spinning wheel so Raven guessed that it was either from Faybelle's dorm room desk or a joke gift that Apple had given Briar before the blonde princess found out that her best friend had turned against the sleeping Beauty story) in the Evil Queen's main base of operations, and while Faybelle had been out poisoning Apple the Evil Fairy popped up for some well deserved revenge.

Except Raven's mother had been so surprised to see the Evil Fairy appear so suddenly that she had stumbled backwards and had accidentally ended up impaling her hand onto the poisoned metal spike sitting innocently behind her before the Evil Fairy could get a single word in.

Raven internally cringed every time she heard that story, even though her mother was a terrible person, it still… chafed slightly in a place deep within that Raven liked to pretend didn't exist, that such a powerful and proud witch like her mother had been taken down so easily, although it did help somewhat that the Evil Fairy seemed to be somewhat miffed that her longtime foe was so easily vanquished all thanks to a little scare and tripping over the ridiculously impractical skirts the Evil Queen was so fond of wearing. After all what's the point of coming face to face with your longstanding enemy if you did not even get the chance to fight them or gloat over getting the upper hand on them?

Personally Raven was mostly rather relieved that it did not have to resort to an actual fight with bloodshed on both sides and perhaps the blood of innocent bystanders.

Life was settling into a more comforting routine as of late, the Thorn Clan was being true to their word in regards to their promise to take good care of Raven until the future was a little bit more stable for the witch to make a decision towards where her future would take her, and Raven was grateful for that, especially since Faybelle seemed to be taking great pains to be at least civil towards her.

Her father had been downright worried for his daughter regardless of both he and Raven knowing beforehand what she had signed herself up for, so Raven had little choice but to call him almost everyday just to assure him that she was being treated well.

But to be honest Raven almost felt as though the Thorn Clan was being _too_ patient with her and as a result Raven was pretty certain that she had gotten lazy in regards to how she was going to tackle her future. So far Raven was content with going through the motions and throwing herself into learning how to deal with the little duties mandatory for a territory this big instead of really addressing the issue of staying Faybelle's wife, which was not fair to either her or Faybelle but Raven wasn't quite keen on making any first moves quite yet…

"Maddie is going to stop by for another visit soon." The witch told her wife after the proceedings in the court were finished for the day. "She says that she's bringing more letters from the Rebels with her."

"Good, you and she can act as witnesses so that Briar can't try to hit me again." Faybelle grumbles sourly as they walk through one of the open courtyard garden hallways. "I like Briar, _really_ , I really, really do, but she's acting as though I'm holding you against your will or something!"

"Would you like me to talk to her again?" Raven asked guiltily. "It's the least I can do for making her and everybody else so worried."

Faybelle huffed looking away. "Let's face it, it's not me that they're mad at it's the Evil Queen and the White family, but they can't set proper blame on them so they're attacking me instead. You know how much those people enjoy having a accessible blood-born villain to point and sneer at."

Raven flinched. She knew _all too well_ how that went.

Concerns had been raised over Ever After's actions in regards to her mother being broken free; why was there not better security of the mirror that the Evil Queen had been imprisoned in? Why did no one try to re-prison the Evil Queen after she revealed herself? Why was the dreaded Evil Queen imprisoned in a high school in the first place?

Still edgy over the Evil Queen's power the presiding royalty in Wonderland sent out discrete messages that strongly urged their citizens to either move back to the homeland or out of Ever After resulting in all of the former Wonderland refugees and immigrants living near Ever After High to quietly transfer their children to other places and move away. Tentatively a handful of other students had either been taken out of school, or had confessed to Raven through the secret network of letters she had been receiving (since the witch had decided to pointedly swear off all her old online accounts and her phone where potentially unwanted individuals could easily reach her) that their parents planned to patiently wait till the year was over and just simply never send their precious children back after the summer was over.

Maddie had warned, with unusual softness that there had been a whisper or two of reproach spoken in public towards Apple for letting the Evil Queen free, for hiding and aiding the dangerous criminal, and even fewer whispers towards Snow White for treating it all like one big game and for her inaction to lead to the near imprisonment of multiple world's and kingdom's future rulers.

But not very loudly, such things were just simply not said too loudly or too frequently in Ever After.

 _Heavens forbid_ that the ruling family, the family that was _the fairest of them all_ , drop too far down in popularity. Raven thought bitterly, pain throbbing in her chest at the memory of Apple, cheerfully admitting to setting the Evil Queen free and helping the woman, supporting the woman when she took over the school, accusing Raven of a crime that the young witch did not commit, with such a pleased smile on her face, as if the thought of Raven being the one to burn down the Dragon Games arena was the best thing that had ever happened to Apple, that it wasn't at all uncharacteristic of the one Apple had insisted was her best friend.

The cold force of the princess's betrayal ached through Raven's veins so much that it hurt to breathe.

It was times like these that Raven would give anything to learn to hate Apple just so that she could find closure and move on, but like so many people Raven just… loved Apple too much to ever really hate her.

She wanted to ask Faybelle if Apple had said anything to her before the fairy poisoned the princess but was always too scared at what she might hear. Of what Raven might do if there was even the slightest shred of hope that-

"Hey, are you okay?" Faybelle asked looking at the pale witch in concern.

"Y-yeah." Raven coughed and tried to breath normally. "I was just… lost in thought that's all." She tried to focus on something else, something aside from how absurdly easy it would have been to slip back into the old routine of… well now that Raven had the chance to take a proper step back from it all she wouldn't call what she used to have with Apple a _mutual friendship_ , not on Apple's end at any rate since she obviously only ever wanted a version of Raven that simply did not exist, but at the very least if Apple had apologized or acknowledged that she had been wrong about the Evil Queen being as enchantingly the villain of Apple's dreams and how Raven was now was good for the moment, Raven would have forgiven the princess enough to go back to pretending that Apple was a real friend.

It really was hardly advisable, not after the princess had harmed Raven so deliberately and had broken the trust the witch had in Apple without a care, but… Raven had been… so very happy to have someone work to get so close to Raven when everyone else would just rather run away and keep the witch isolated like she was an ugly disease. It wasn't ideal, what with Apple urging Raven to become something she was not, but it had been nice at least to have someone who would never be afraid of her if she lost her temper and her magic flared up. Raven who had been so lonely for so long liked pretending that Apple cared for her like a real friend would…

But then again that had been a lie hadn't it? Or maybe Apple did see her as a friend but… the story had been far too important and a simple expendable friendship just was not enough to curb Apple's need to have her happy ending _right_ _now_ because waiting to see what the future had in store without a perfect plan for the perfect story to lead to the perfect ending that Apple so blindly believed in without question or perspective towards how her tirade for everyone and everything to fit into the little roles she had been taught everyone had to follow would obviously lead to… what had happened…

How could Apple have been so blind? She knew that the Evil Queen was not someone you made any sort of dealings with; she may be Raven's own mother but even the entirety of the villain community agreed with Raven in regards to the Evil Queen being worse than acceptably bad for a bad guy-

…Which in turn meant in the minds of the White family that the Evil Queen was the baddest of the bad and therefore the best evil villain ever in the eyes of Apple because that meant that her mother had the best villain there was for her story and since Apple strived to be exactly just like her mother she wanted the best too.

But all that she had been left with was Raven, just plain old Raven who could never live up to Apple's imaginary ideals and was rebelling against being a villain to boot…

Faybelle frowned, uncharacteristic concern crossing her features as she eyed the witch's face as the other girl drifted off in thought again, the familiar expression of utter helplessness and betrayal crossing Raven's features like always when she got like this.

Once again the fairy was struck by the sinking realization that the Raven that stood before her and the Raven that had stood up so defiantly on Legacy Day were… now almost completely different people.

For some reason the fairy found something very wrong with this.

" _Aw screw it_." The fairy mumbled under her breath and took the confused witch by the arm, leading the two of them off, away from the courtyard and the Thorn Clan's massive home citadel of this territory.

"Where are we going?" Raven asked eyes wide as they traveled down the labyrinth of earthen sandstone steps surrounding the tall hilled base of the citadel leading down to the flat gardened roofs of the provided homes for the Thorn Clan's staff and then down to the riverbed that fed the thirsty oasis with much needed water.

"There is a private spot I know about just beyond the river, we need to speak privately without prying eyes." Faybelle stated before falling stubbornly silent.

Raven sighed hoping that this wasn't about her declaration the other day regarding how she was thinking about staying indefinitely, yet she knew with a pang of dread that it was.

Raven had always wanted a marriage that had love in it as well as the freedom of having been given the choice to choose whom she wanted to be wed to the first time around. Being married to a Good King wasn't strictly mandatory, most Evil Queens never married at all, but between her mother's overbearing influence and Apple's need for Raven to adhere to strict traditional guidelines the witch was uncertain whether she would have been given even that little bit of freedom if she had left fate up to tradition and the powers that currently ran Ever After.

And that was a big-small part as to why Raven felt the need to stay Faybelle's wife, their marriage may not be one of epic romantic proportions but it was at least bearable for the both of them thus far, and it provided Raven with a legitimate excuse not to go back home where she knew that certain individuals could find her with ease.

Raven never saw herself as someone who would ever feel the need to cower behind anybody just to get away from some fairytale royal's scolding, Raven knew that as long as she did not give up an inch then eventually the opposing party would burst into tears or a tantrum (surprisingly the Headmaster threw more tantrums than Apple) and stomp away with a well worded foreboding remark that Raven knew was supposed to harm her feelings at the very least since nothing else seemed to phase the witch, and Raven had grown to not only expect but also deal with such outbursts and move on with her day as if nothing happened.

But that had been before her mother had been broken out of prison and before the Dragon Games had changed the rules of everything that Raven had assumed about the school… changed the way she saw Apple.

XXX

 ** _Many moons ago after the poisoning…_**

 _Faybelle had moved quickly after she transports herself and Raven a safe distance away, moving the limp witch to the last place that anybody will look for them; the grove that held the yearbook trees of graduating classes from the past._

 _It feels like an eternity before Faybelle's phone rings, her mother's exasperated face filling the tiny screen as she recounts to her daughter about how easily the Evil Queen had been defeated and to inform her daughter of how the Evil Queen had taken the substituted role of Sleeping Beauty. Faybelle knows with a small kernel of pride as she tells her mother about her poisoning Apple that this means that now both of her fairytale obligations have been fulfilled in one day, and that she had, in two separate ways, managed to circumnavigate two persistent princesses who would have object to Faybelle being their villain to boot!_

 _Briar should be pleased at the very least that she wasn't running the risk of becoming Sleeping Beauty anymore…_

 _Faybelle hung up with strict orders to wait where she was before her mother was to call back with news about Apple's transition into Snow White just in time to see Raven twitch into the waking world._

 _The magic filled kiss she had given Raven to subdue the girl was an evolutionary throwback from prehistoric times where fairies would subdue human, other fairy, and humanoid prey. Later when her particular species of fairy shook off their cannibalistic tendencies the ability was used more for abducting humans, and as time moved on the trait slowly began being bred out of the modern fairy descendants but was still rather prevalent in certain families, Faybelle's being one of them._

 _It was the sluggishness that remained in the system after such an attack, which prevented Faybelle from getting a broken nose when Raven woke up and promptly began attacking and screaming at the fairy in earnest, the witch's_ _legendary stubbornness managing to land the girl with a solid hit to Faybelle's cheekbone before the fairy was able to hold the witch down and holler over Raven's screams until the witch actually heard her._

 _"You hurt her! You- you killed-!" Raven screeched furious._

 _"No I didn't you idiot I was just fulfilling our contract-!" Faybelle yelled down to Raven pinned down beneath her._

 _"You're working for the Evil Queen you traitor!" Raven's eyes came alight with purple magic._

 _"No I am not! I tricked her! I tricked the blasted woman to her own doom!"_

 _"You are Apple's murderer! In your hext you said-!"_

 _"I got to Apple before she could don't you see?" Faybelle hissed blue magic_ _escaping her hands and flowing painfully over the witch's wrists, silencing Raven with a pained hiss. "My mother has defeated the Evil Queen and Apple will be awoken from her fairytale sleep a little early by Daring! Everything is happening just to our designs can't you see that? You must believe me!"_

 _"The hext…" Raven gulped in air through gritted teeth._

 _"The Evil Queen had captured and imprisoned most of the staff and Snow White, she wasn't going to keep them alive for longer than a week if she could help it, and Apple's usefulness to her was over with, the plan had been to get you back, get you to see her way, and then the two of you were going to conquer everything together. She used Apple's insane need to have you as her villain to free her, played everyone until they fell right into her trap and she could've won if it weren't for you, if it weren't for my family, she might've won. She never counted on you betraying her for the good of everybody else, I bet she never thought much past how she was going to convince Apple to become her ally in turning you, the school body was so complacent and predictable to her that she didn't need to think past that." Faybelle hissed in the struggling girl's ear. "Can't you see that we've won despite your little princess's supremely idiotic little stunt to get you to forcefully mold to her will?"_

 _Raven's face crumpled from rage to grief as the words sunk in, as the reality of all the recent events sink in completely, the weight of it all causes the witch to throw her head back and let out a long, heartbroken wail._

XXX

 ** _Present moon…_**

"It's beautiful here." Raven murmured looking out over the cliff edge to the thriving villages integrated into the green landscape of the oasis. It has always been a wonder for Raven to see face to face the fae-folk's ability to merge their society in with the natural landscape to the point where both sides live in a completely symbiotic relationship to one another.

They are hidden from view by the shade of some _creeping fairy willows_ with their glowing blue flowers and several of a kind of giant desert succulent bush that looked like a massive cousin to an _Aloe Vera_ plant. Indeed this place did appear to be secluded and private but in the fairy realms you never really knew…

"You haven't been acting like yourself." The fairy stated bluntly. "I would have thought that you would have divorced me by now and gone back to school where all of your little Rebel friends are."

"I haven't been feeling much like myself as of late." Raven admitted truthfully. "Too much has changed for me to just go back and pretend that nothing has happened. I…" The witch hesitates. "I-I'd… no longer feel truly safe there ever again I sense."

Faybelle is silent, regarding the witch with a searching gaze.

This… this was not the same Raven who had stood so strong at Legacy Day and denied destiny with the air of someone who would never back down. Something, or more like _someone_ , had changed the witch, not only was Raven grieving something that was now forever lost to her but she was also… more cautious, content in allowing the Thorn Clan, her Rebel allies, and her father to act as her shields against addressing all the broken promises of the past and the lost sense of being _safe_ in Ever After head on herself.

"She really broke you down with this little stunt." The fairy moved closer to her wife, this _needed_ to be addressed now, whether either of them wanted to or not it had to be done. "Truly I must admit that I am quite surprised myself, such manipulation and treachery from a pure princess instead of a villain, seems like little fairest Apple had everyone fooled about her true self. Especially you."

Raven inhaled a sharp, shaky breath and tensed but did not correct or fight the other.

"I was there." Raven breathed airily, after a long silence, her eyes clouding over with tears. "And then I saw you poison Apple. A-and I-I… I thought that you had killed her. For r-real not-…" The witch trailed off, focused on breathing.

"I know I was there remember?" Faybelle reminded holding the now weeping witch's head to her chest.

The Evil Queen had gone into a rage when she discovered that her coveted daughter had gone, in her anger she banished Apple from the school and instructed Faybelle to follow the princess back to wherever Raven was, because the princess was predictable in the manner where it was obvious that the first chance the girl got she'd attempt to find Raven… only instead of having the "good luck" of finding Raven at the dragon stables it was actually Faybelle, glamoured to look and sound like Raven.

Apple, being possibly the most gullible person that Faybelle had ever met (and that was saying something considering the mental IQ some of her former classmates), thought that all was well when the disguised fairy accepted the princess's apology and then proceeded to help herself to an apple from the disguised fairy's "runaway food supply basket", Faybelle didn't even have to verbally tempt the girl with the poisoned fruit to get her to take a bite from one!

Either Faybelle had miscalculated the poison dosage, or Apple had taken too small of a bite, because the princess had managed to stay awake long enough to hear the real Raven's scream and then turn to see the witch running towards them, horror and panic written plainly on Raven's face.

Faybelle was not certain if Apple really remembered Faybelle dropping the glamour and grabbing Raven for a kiss (to stop the hysterical witch's screaming which would have perhaps alerted too much attention, Faybelle may be _evil_ but she was not a _monster_ ) before transporting herself and Raven miles away from the scene, but it was pretty obvious that a few pixies and a handful of persons who had been sympathetic to Raven's plight and had thus followed the witch through the forest to help her "save Apple" (which the princess _would_ be in need of saving if the Evil Queen had been allowed to continue on as she was) from the Evil Queen's nefarious plans, had told Apple every detail that they had witnessed as well as a few embellishments on Faybelle's evilness because the princess had been reportedly the loudest of the outraged group from the school over the whole affair.

Raven had confessed to be highly concerned over how her absence had left an even deeper rift between the students at school, not very many people had been informed about the marriage specifically, but it had been made clear that neither Faybelle or Raven would be coming back now that the Thorn Clan was convinced that both the stories of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty had been completed.

That was what the rift was mostly about; people just couldn't agree on whether or not the stories really were completed for a number of reasons that made Raven get a headache just thinking about how easily so many people were willing to say that it didn't count since it was just too different than what was expected.

For one thing the Evil Queen had been the one to succumb to the Sleeping Beauty slumber, Darling- _not_ Daring- had been the one to wake Apple up, Raven hadn't poisoned anybody or did anything Evil Queen-like at all, they all were still in high school, and the list continued on and on with new things being added everyday!

Raven felt guilty for it but she would not deny being relieved about being too far away and almost completely unreachable by conventional means to be roped into having to deal with that nonsense. One of the benefits of running away and eloping with the girl who now held both the titles of the _new_ Evil Queen and _Young_ Evil Fairy (Faybelle had worked something out with her mother so that she'd inherit the throne and title after enough time had passed and she had received the proper training in running the territories), and once the marriage became common knowledge there would be little anybody could do or say in regards to the matter of Faybelle's legitimacy as the new… what was the new title called again? …Ah yes, she was now the very first _Evil Fairy Queen_.

Rather a catchy title in Raven's humble opinion.

"I'm sorry I doubted your sense of honor to your family and our contract." Raven whispered into Faybelle's shoulder. "I should have known better."

"In light of certain events that had transpired in such a short period of time I'm inclined to forgive you for your brief bout of insanity in regards towards my intentions." Faybelle stated generously. "Why do you want to stay here, married to me though? Jumping into a permanent arranged marriage with someone you do not love doesn't sound like something you'd do."

Raven huffs a laugh, wiping away stray tears. "But it is an arranged marriage that I had chosen to enter of my own volition, a choice that I made freely without anybody telling me that I had to enter it out of obligation to a stupid story! It may not be ideal but it is special to me, and besides… I've grown rather _fond_ of you." The witch admits with a sly look. "Of course a great deal of my decision, and the matter of how we are to go about our marriage is half up to you. I'd feel more confident in which path to take if you told me what you wanted, the respect towards my privacy and my angsty pining is nice but I _seriously_ really need to know where you stand in all of this."

Faybelle blinks slowly, feeling bewilderedly thrown by the witch's honesty.

"What would you say about having a date with me later today after our duties are finished?" The fairy asks after a long contemplative silence.

This time Raven is the one who feels thrown.

XXX

 ** _Many moons ago after the poisoning…_**

 _Raven's near deathly silence is even more disturbing than her hateful heartbreaking howling wails to the yearbook trees, the best embodiment of the ancestors that they would perhaps ever get, all around them. Faybelle… can feel nothing but helplessness as the girl slumped on the ground before her stares listlessly at nearly nothing at all like she's a broken little doll._

 _"Look, I know that you are upset about me poisoning Apple-" Faybelle began._

 _"It's not that." Raven snaps, the first words that she's spoken in a while. "I wanted to find Apple a new villain anyway. To make her-" The witch chokes on her words. "I wanted to make sure she was happy."_

 _Faybelle was silent for a moment. "We did not kill your mother at least." The fairy tried again. "At least you don't have to be upset about contracting her death."_

 _"That's not why I'm like this either." Raven almost growled but stopped herself and dejectedly sagged her shoulders. "Mom can't hurt anybody now, and she'll be happy in her dreams, really this is by far a better fate for her than the mirror prison. I am thankful to you and your family for being so merciful."_

 _Faybelle stares at the witch oddly. "Then what was all that just now with your screaming that it wasn't fair and calling the ancestors all sorts of terrible things?"_

 _"It was all a lie." Raven says after a moment of bitter silence, her voice low and raw with emotion and severely hoarse from so much straining use. "She said that we were friends, that she cared about me and my happiness… that she liked me just the way I was."_

 _"You're talking about Apple." Faybelle seems to affirm to herself. "The same Apple who constantly tried to get you to accept your former destiny? Like on a daily basis?"_

 _Raven shook her head. "This was different, before Apple said that she wanted me to change of my own free will and that she'd still be my friend even if I became the next Evil Queen and the story was over. She used to tell me constantly that I didn't have to follow my mother's exact footsteps, that I could become my own Evil Queen and that she'd make sure that I was never… lonely. She- how could she have done all of this? She's supposed to be fair and kind and I know that she is smart, how could she have so happily put everyone in so much mortal danger, cast our friendship and my dreams away as if they were nothing so easily?" The witch sobbed between shuttering breaths to the grassy ground tears streaming down._

 _"She wanted her fairytale pretty badly." Faybelle pointed out though she was beginning to see why the witch was so upset._

 _"But enough to put everyone in danger? She's supposed to be the future queen of Ever After! She's got to think of her people and her friends first!" Raven argued back as if the concept of what had happened in the past few days was utterly unthinkable._

 _"Yeah well obviously your former princess wasn't anywhere as fair or and nice as she lets people think that she is." Faybelle huffed out, crossing her arms. "One is only required to convince everyone that they are a true fair maiden, they aren't required to actually be a fair maiden you know. As long as the right people buy into that lie they are able to rule with a great deal of power, that's why fairytale kingdoms need their villains Raven, it's to show to the people that they deserve to be in power because they are practically divinely pure, the common people who actually run things in those kingdoms will do anything for such perfected purity."_

 _"And I w-was a-an… inconvenience t-to Apple in that regard." Raven hiccups obviously upset at the realization. "I g-got-t in her w-way."_

 _Faybelle stares at the broken girl before her before sighing, mentally saying goodbye to both her pride and all of her previous (perfectly blissfully simpler and preferable) assumptions about the witch as she kneels down beside Raven and gathers the limp girl up into her arms._

 _"You did far worse than simply getting in her way little bird, you were threatening her coveted popularity amongst our peers, the future rulers and allies to other realms. Without that popularity you were taking away not only her standing at school for being the fairest princess, but you were also taking away the power that her mother currently holds over everyone else. Image means everything to the fairytale kingdoms of the good guys, the better your image as a maiden or a hero the more power you hold over everyone else, the niceties have always been a lie, morals, friendship, even love come secondary to the power of the fairest story of them all."_

 _Raven let out a helpless noise as she clutches to Faybelle like a traumatized little kitten trying to hide from the scary world, the witch quivering like a leaf in the cold wind._

 _"B-but I loved her!" Raven whimpered. "I loved her so much, she may not have known to what extent I loved her, but she knew I cared for her deeply!"_

 _"Ah." Faybelle said, realizing why the witch was in so much pain now. "Perhaps that was why she was so certain that her scheme to turn you into her mother would work out and that you would forgive her for everything with a smile and a snap of her fingers. Since the Queen family has been denounced of it's high standing after your mother went completely bug-nuts on everyone, and she has been known to have admitted in the past that she sees you as being born solely for her and the use of you fulfilling your role so that she could ascend to the throne as the next fairest pure damsel of them all..." Faybelle mumbles her thoughts out loud to herself until her train of thought is broken by a pained keen from the witch in her arms, Raven dissolving back down into tears._

 _Faybelle sighs helplessly up at the sky while attempting to hold the witch closer in unspoken apology._

 _She was really, really bad at this whole comforting thing._


	3. Chapter 3

A/n: I find it highly improbable that no one got hurt during the Evil Queen's rampage in the movie, I get that this is for kids but all of the really little kids that I know in the neighborhood who know about this show were calling it unconvincing because of it, we had a long conversation about it actually, and they also didn't think that Raven should have forgiven Apple so easily, apparently they had said that if one of their friends acted the way Apple had acted they would be getting new friends… this was said directly out of the mouths of a six, eight, and two ten-year-olds so… out of the mouths of babes indeed.

They were also suspicious as to why Raven almost automatically got so much flack and mistrust yet Apple seemed to be forgiven so easily for letting the Evil Queen loose. I tried to explain to them about how a lot of the show seemed to be about family reputations, fairytale princesses, and the whole good and evil thing but they still didn't quite understand.

My neighbor just told me not to worry about explaining and turned it into a lesson of how to spot an unhealthy relationship; obviously this woman was not an Apple fan (I still am a teeny bit to be honest despite what the movie did for her character development).

XXX

The first date had gone surprisingly well, and thus it was soon led to another, and then another, and another, until it became common place, the oddness that the two felt about it evolving into acceptance and slowly, but surely there was a growing fondness for one another on a more romantic level that neither would have ever predicted possible.

"This is just way too weird." Briar shook her head in disbelief one day while she was visiting for her monthly "check in" on Raven's health and treatment. "I knew that you and she were dating but you're dating Faybelle for this long… I'd never would of thought _that_ would ever happen."

"She is my wife." Raven argued weakly.

"Oh come on, we both know that a marriage from arranged contract and a marriage chosen of willing romantic interests mean two different things in fairy society." Briar rolled her eyes. "But seriously this has lasted longer than two seconds?"

"We've settled whatever it was between us, somehow… I'm pretty sure that me helping her become the evilest of them all rather helped a lot in opening up mutually civil relations between the two of us. She is far better at the job than I'd ever be." Raven scratched the side of her head.

"You know… some people still say that it didn't count." Briar pointed out carefully.

"Well those people are going to have to deal with it because they are going to have one hex of a time building a time machine to go back and fix everything that's happened. I'm married to Faybelle, She's the one who poisoned Apple and cursed my mother to sleep for how many centuries, and she has whisked me away to a land where so far it has been proven that very few people from school can reach me." Raven listed out brusquely. "I can't name anybody else who has proven themselves more worthy of her evil title than Faybelle, and on that note I can't name anybody else more determined than me to keep it this way so… not a whole lot these people you're talking about can do." The witch shrugged.

"She still doesn't know that you're married to Faybelle." Briar revealed the princess didn't have to specify who "she" was.

"You didn't tell her?" Raven asked confused. "Nobody has informed her? But… over half the Rebels must know by now as well as some Royals so why-?"

"Things aren't the same at school anymore Raven." Briar sighed. "Before, this whole Royal versus Rebel thing was more like an abstract philosophical debate for most people, now it's… real. And for a lot of people your mysterious contract with Faybelle's family in the event that your mother broke free along with your disappearance has made it very difficult to ignore the fact that all of us were in extreme danger and that everything will be different now. It's taken a toll on everybody and now everything has changed."

Raven looked down. "I've heard whispers from my letters, about some people being transferred out and others who are planning on never coming back after the summer has finished… and I was there, for a short amount of time, I had witnessed those who had gotten hurt in the wake of my mother's tantrum, Faybelle won't say it herself but she has not forgiven herself for that. Everyone seems to be making light of it all to me out of either politeness or to spare me my feelings."

"Ashlynn appreciated being able to say goodbye to you before you had to leave." Briar revealed in a sober voice.

"How is Ashlynn healing now that you mention it?" Raven asked softly, she had known that the girl had been one of several who had been at the wrong place at the wrong time when the Evil Queen had her fit over Raven's stunt of running away and had fallen nearly twenty feet down the big pit where the school building used to reside. She sustained substantial injuries that were taking a good deal of time to heal and if Faybelle's family had not been there to collect the girl and take her somewhere safe in order to administer emergency aide… Raven didn't want to even think about what could have happened.

"Going out of her mind with boredom even with her parents allowing Hunter to practically _live_ in their new home on the weekends and the days that he can miss school by doing the coursework through packets and tutoring from Ashlynn's parents as well as all the people who visit her, she's had enough with staring at the walls of her room, she wants to be able to walk on her own and go outside." Briar shook her head amused. Ashlynn's family had been one of the first to transfer their child out of school and move to another kingdom and as things were right now it looked an awful lot like the Huntsman family were considering doing the same thing for Hunter. "She's determined to come visit you and Faybelle as soon as possible by the way."

"We'd love that." Raven assured through a lump of emotion stuck in her throat. "And do you know about Ginger? Alistair? Sparrow? Are they all doing as well also?"

"Still no casualties if that's what you're worried about." Briar huffed in somber amusement. "Everyone's on the mend… physically at least. I'm not too sure if her highness Snow White's reputation will ever quite be the same but… she'll probably find a way."

"I really hope that she never finds out a way to rope _me_ into whatever scheme she comes up with." Raven shivered looking like a spooked hunted animal. "I know that it sounds mean but… I'm kind of frightened of her now."

"It's totally justified." Briar assured with surprising force. "I mean this whole mess started all because you became slightly more popular than Apple! That's it! That is literally all it took for them to throw good reason out the window and endanger everybody!"

"Well I know that Apple didn't- I mean she couldn't have been _malicious_ in her intent to turn me evil, she was tricked by my mother… right?" Raven asked meekly, her eyes desperately searching the other's face for something redeeming about her former roommate. "She's talked to you about all this surely."

Briar's lips thinned, her eyes looked shifty. "Actually no, she hasn't explained herself to me to that depth… and I'm not certain that we'll ever get around to it you see, um… she and I kind of had a falling out. Like a big one."

Raven was taken aback. "When was this?"

"Not long after Ashlynn was injured and Faybelle dragged you off to elope." Briar cleared her throat. "I'm not sure when it was exactly… time kind of merged together in all the chaos, but I definitely remember a lot of shouting and crying on both our ends."

"But you've been friends for ages!" Raven exclaimed in horror, an intense feeling of guilt rising like bile in her throat.

"Oi, don't be givin' me that guilty look. This had nothing to do with you and it sure as hex isn't your fault." Briar scolded the witch lightly, turning her face to the side with pursed lips. "I've been able to put up with a lot coming from Apple, even though our views were radically different and our friendship had strained some after that whole Wonderland incident, she was still my best girl… however a line had to be drawn when the whole school got put in danger and so many people got hurt when your mother threw that tantrum. I just… I just couldn't stomach how she was going on about how she had just wanted her story and how this wasn't the perfect ending that she had wanted and I… snapped."

The witch continued to stare with wide eyes.

Briar sighed. "Like I said; things aren't the same at school anymore."

XXX

 _Raven had finally managed to collect herself enough to stop crying, though she still clung to Faybelle as it the fairy was an anchor keeping her grounded enough to finally let everything that had happened to settle in the witch's mind._

 _"So what will be expected of me for our marriage?" Raven asked hoarsely. "I will be marrying you soon after this correct?"_

 _Faybelle jumped out of her serious contemplation as to how to break the exact same new to the witch, moving to grasp Raven by the shoulders in order to properly give the other an incredulous look. "You knew about the full scope of the contract?" The fairy asked with wide eyes._

 _"Well yes…" Raven furrowed her brows in confusion. "It's the only thing that makes sense, in fairy law contract arranged marriages are a decent legal way to transfer titles that all the kingdoms recognize, even more so since I will now be inheriting my father's title and traditionally some Evil Queens do marry Good Kings which legalizes all of this ever further in the fairytale kingdoms." The witch casts Faybelle a suspicious look. "What? Did you not think that I would not know as to what I had signed myself up for?"_

 _"Uh…" Faybelle's mind raced as she sensed an impending fight on the horizon. "W-well your mother hated us so… I just figured that she only cared about all the changes she wanted to make if she managed to conquer everything."_

 _"It is true that my mother only cared about herself and did not teach me very much before she left." Raven admitted. "But why did you not consider my father in this?"_

 _Oh crap, this was a smart one. Faybelle made a mental note to keep this in mind for the future if she ever wanted to win another verbal fight ever again. Maybe if she tried for flattery… "Well I'll admit that it's obvious now that your father is far more learned than the ruling family of Ever After and many of the Charming family branches. I had just assumed since the only princess I knew from a human kingdom that had extensive knowledge of my kind's laws was Briar, and since your mother, a witch, was imprisoned a far away from constant contact..."_

 _Raven huffed out a breath. "My father did the best he could, one of the reasons why my mother deemed it necessary to spare him was because he had deliberately charmed her with his intelligence and his wit. He made her fall in love with him and thus she readily allowed us to be a family and left him free to raise me in his kingdom while also ruling hers while she was away. He's already made preparations to combine the two kingdoms for me or my children to rule over as the next line of Good Kings, I will return to help rule beside him just as soon as it becomes apparent once and for all that I will never be following my mother's footsteps. Hex, I may or may not even have any heirs who'd want to be apart of fairytales for the next few generations, that will be their choice as the next future Good Kings, Good Princesses and Good Princes."_

 _"Wouldn't it be Good Queen in your case?" Faybelle asks._

 _Raven shook her head. "No, the Queen family name has perished with my mother in her eternal sleep as the new Sleeping Beauty- which is still kind of weird to think of her that way by the way- and besides, I am my father's daughter, the family name of King is far more appropriate and the title of a female king better coincides with both fairy and witch culture and not fairytale culture."_

 _"…You've thought this all through." Faybelle realized with a touch of respect._

 _Raven tilted her chin up in defiant pride a powerful glint in her violet eyes. "I was going to make it happen one way or another, whether or not my mother ever escaped or if Apple ever got around to finding herself a new villain. I was always going to be my father's daughter and heir."_

 _Before Faybelle could comment further her phone began ringing._

 _Raven settled down to the fairy's lap to rest her head and take in the scenery while she still could; she would not be returning to Ever After for a long time, perhaps even for the rest of her life, she wanted to focus on something, cling to the last visages of the beautiful forest and land she had called home for so long, despite the conflicting politics that would forever remain sour in her heart now that it was all over._

 _Some wedding day this turned out to be._

 _"What? How many were hurt?" Faybelle barked into her phone gaining Raven's attention as the fairy began to swear passionately, the voice on the other end spoke in quick succession in a language that Raven was not familiar with. "Alright, understood, we will await you arrival."_

 _"Faybelle?" Raven asked after the other had hung up her breath and heart caught in her throat._

 _"The former Evil Queen did more damage in her attempted conquering of the school campus than what I had originally been aware of, we've got injured being treated by my mother's forces, Ashlynn and Ginger were among them." Faybelle snarled at her phone, eyes wild with anger and grief._

 _"What?" Raven yelped immediately trying to get to her feet only to find that her legs weren't working quite well._

 _"Careful!" Faybelle scolded as she caught the witch and held her upright. "There are no casualties yet, and things are settling down, we will be retrieved in a few minutes to see our fallen friends and say our quick goodbyes before being led to our transport out of the country."_

 _Raven drew a painful breath shaking her head up to the cloudy sky. "I knew this would happen, I knew it, I knew it! How could this have been allowed to happen? How?"_

 _"It's over now." Faybelle soothed quietly, sweeping the trembling witch up into her arms. "We can ask why later, for now let's make sure our friends are going to be okay and say our final goodbyes to this place."_

 _XXX_

 _"Ashlynn! Ginger! Oh fairytales, Sparrow? Alistair? Hopper too? You guys too?" Raven almost shrieked, struggling out of Faybelle's arms and stumbling over to the prone forms of her friends laid up on the tables of a temporarily converted coffee shop-turned-field infirmary. "How did this happen? Are you all alright?"_

 _"I'm more concerned with this deal you've made with the Thorn Clan." Ashlynn spoke up before anybody else had the chance, her one non-bruised-shut eye zeroed in on the witch like a laser. The girl was strapped down to a medical board (the Thorn Clan forces had come prepared) the lower half of her body was covered in blankets but the visible parts looked all scratched and bruised. They had several blue glowing orbs of magic floating around her for what Raven guessed was for the purpose of keeping the pain away as well as helping to keep Ashlynn alert until help arrived the girl's parents sat silently close by. They didn't glare or snarl at Raven like the witch almost feared that they might, however the looks of such deep open pity they were currently giving her hurt almost as much as the alternative._

 _"We were informed about a mysterious contract that you made with the Evil Fairy by our rescuers." Ashlynn continued in a dark tone that did not completely mask her worry. "Which makes all of this make more sense since this is quite the operation to go after the now former Evil Queen, and I know that this whole thing wasn't funded solely based on the Evil Fairy's loathing of her. What was the price that they made you pay?"_

 _"Rather astute of you…" Faybelle muttered behind the suddenly shy witch._

 _"I will be getting to you later." The princess snapped testily at the fairy._

 _"Ashlynn, I've got more blankets to keep you warm until the ambulance comes-…" Briar trailed off as she came out of a back room with her arms full of tablecloths. "Raven? What the hex were you thinking making a deal with the Thorn Clan? I know that they had just saved our butts back there but still! What did they make you give up and what is this whole thing a bout Faybelle having just completed both the Evil Fairy role and the Evil Queen roll?" The princess demanded as she glared spitefully at an apathetic Faybelle who had decided to ignore the two princesses and check up on Ginger while both Briar and Ashlynn started to go on and on about the dangers of making a contract with a dangerous fae family to a bewildered Raven (it wasn't difficult for the fairy to tune out the princesses, she'd heard it all before and the sight of her childhood friend sitting in a chair with a bandaged broken arm and a bloodied bandage strapped to the side of her face with both Crumb cousins fretting dutifully over the cooking witch was surreal enough to be pretty distracting)._

 _"Guys stop!" Raven held up one of her hands (the other was braced on a table to keep her upright). "I knew what I was getting into okay? The contract I made with the Evil Fairy was for her help in stopping my mother if she ever broke free and started causing havoc, the price she asked for in exchange for her help was fair and reasonable and considering how badly the past couple of days have been I hold no regrets or have any doubts that this was a good decision."_

 _"So does this mean that you really didn't burn down the Dragon Games arena?" Sparrow asked and got wacked upside the head by Alistair as a result. "Ow! I was just asking! My head is still sore from the freaking goose bump I've got on it thank you!"_

 _Raven sighed irritably. "No I did not set fire to anything, as I kept trying to explain before, my mother was the one to curse my dragon while I was still riding it- AH! Nevermore! I almost forgot about her!"_

 _"She's being collected as we speak along with the rest of our belongings." Faybelle assured from her corner. "Don't worry she'll be coming with us, along with all the dark dragons that nobody here is going to want."_

 _"You're leaving?" Alistair asked, tenderly testing out his bandaged side._

 _Raven nodded. "It was part of the deal, Maddie has a copy of the entire contract on her phone, since the bat's out of the cave now I suppose I can give permission for other people to look at it."_

 _"And just what sort of deal was this?" Briar insisted, one eyebrow rose in challenge._

 _"That Faybelle would get both the roles of Evil Fairy and Evil Queen and that I drop my maternal name and take up my father's family name and title instead." Raven began carefully. "And since she's already fulfilled both her duties in one day there is no reason for us to stay here since I am no longer bound fairytale duties and Faybelle has already assumed both titles."_

 _"Wha-? But I'm still awake!" Briar put her hands to her hips in disbelief._

 _"I tricked the former Evil Queen into pricking her finger on a cursed needle." Faybelle explained. "The magic took her as a decent substitute and she went down like a pile of snoring rocks, turns out that she made perfect Sleeping Beauty material."_

 _"Heh." Briar couldn't help the satisfied smirk that formed onto her face. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer lady."_

 _"What do you mean by fulfilling both roles though?" A bruised and scratched up Hopper asked, steering the conversation back. "What phones of ours that had not been broken were confiscated by these fairy people." He gestures to the stoic winged figures in black uniforms keeping guard around the room. "And why do you both have to leave? You stayed at school this long even though you weren't going to follow destiny, what has changed?"_

 _"The contract that legally allows Faybelle to keep both her knew titles breaks a fundamental school rule, we can't stay here." Raven explained nervously. "And as for the story roles…" She looks to Faybelle helplessly._

 _The fairy rolls her eyes but complies with the witch's silent plea. "I got the news from Blondie's blog on my phone, the headline reads that Apple- or should I say the new Snow White, is now awake and well, her story has been completed, just the outcome she had wanted from her starting this mess in the first place, minus Raven being the one to poison her of course."_

 _"You poisoned Apple?" Ashlynn and Briar shrieked._

 _Faybelle cast the two an unimpressed look. "It all worked out and she got what she wanted, course it's not Apple anymore if you want to get technical, it's Snow White now." The fairy looks down at her phone when a new story update beeped for her attention. "My dear bride our time grows short, say your goodbyes now, we must leave before Ap- Princess Snow White tells the Headmaster and Queen Snow White of my kidnapping of you and my stealing your former destiny, they may begin setting out looking for us and causing all sort of trouble soon."_

 _Raven takes a shaky breath, the thought of Apple right now, how angry she'll be, makes her want to grow wings and flee to the skies. "I understand." The witch nods soberly._

 _"Bride?" Ashlynn queries sharply._

 _Raven cleared her throat. "To legally bind this all together I will be taking up my father's title as the Good King and… well I agreed that as soon as the Thorn Clan keeps up their end of the deal I'll immediately be considered wed to the new… um…"_

 _"I like Evil Fairy Queen, it has a nice ring to it." Faybelle piped up. She gently hugged Ginger farewell before slowly making her way to Raven._

 _"Yes." Raven nodded. "I am now considered to be the bride of the Evil Fairy Queen."_

 _The tense silence in the room was deafening._

 _"You…" Briar breathed out her gaze seething mad and directed towards Faybelle._

 _"You made her your harem wife?" Ashlynn finished for her, shrieking in outrage._

 _Ashlynn's mother had to get up to hold her struggling daughter down and Faybelle was forced to duck and seek refuge behind Raven when Briar moved to strike her, the princess soon finding herself being held back by one of the Thorn guards._

 _"Are you serious?" Briar snarled. "The worst villain criminal in history gets broken loose and the only thing you can think of is to take advantage of-"_

 _"I knew what I was getting into!" Raven bellowed forcing the room to go silent. "And the marriage is necessary, too much blood has been spilt on the Queen family name and whatever demons and consequences that have been left in the wake of my mother's rampage will never cease to harm my current family and my future family and use us as a means to make themselves appear better and more powerful at our expense, even if we want absolutely nothing to do with the ancestral villain roles." The witch finished in a quite, subdued tone._

 _The unspoken references to Apple and Queen Snow White both trying to use the Evil Queen to make themselves look better in the public eye hung heavy in the room, several people stared at Raven in disbelief as they made the mental connection between the witch's words and the events of the past few days._

 _Faybelle looked to her phone when it pinged._

 _"Raven, my wife." The fairy emphasized with a pointed look to Briar. "We must leave. Now."_

 _Raven nodded, her hands shaking as she wrapped her arms around Faybelle for support._

 _"Raven…" Briar shook her head attempting to break free of the fairy guard's hold._

 _"Goodbye… I'm sorry." Raven murmured, her voice sounding small as Faybelle transported the two of them away in a swirl of magic._

 _"Raven!" Briar yelled out to the empty air over the roar of the long awaited ambulance siren._

XXX

"You're going to give Moss grey hair if you insist on perching yourself up on high places like that." Faybelle scolded good humoredly making Raven giggle.

"But there are so many good places to perch around here!" Raven argued, skillfully swinging down from a smooth barked tree that had grown into a rocky ledge making the formation of earth look like it had sprung branches and puffy succulent leaves. The witch had taken to being mostly barefooted these days and despite her original self-consciousness Raven was adjusting to wearing the light skimpy clothing that made living in a hot climate bearable. Today the witch was wearing a light crop top, some thin linin pants, and an ornamental hairpiece in place of a crown. "Back in my father's combined kingdoms there had been so much for me to climb on and so many little nooks and crannies for me to explore as a child, I've missed it."

Faybelle could relate, although there did appear to be a great deal of good places worth perching on for a fairy like herself in actuality the polished walls of the buildings were often too slippery to grab purchase and the trees were filled to the brim with pixies. Ugh.

Also Kitty Cheshire was pretty darn territorial when it came to be best napping spots and if it wasn't kitty it was some other school peer trampling around willy-nilly in the trees (Blondie mostly in the quest for her best latest scoop).

But that was just Faybelle personally, Raven didn't have the wings to get up to all the high places that Faybelle had longed to perch on.

"Oh? The spots to climb and explore were pretty limited despite first appearances I'll admit but I'd never would have guessed that Kitty would have driven you away from her territory, she likes you." Faybelle scratched her head in bafflement.

Raven blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"Well isn't that the reason why you didn't climb things at school?" Faybelle asked. "Whenever I tried to perch anywhere decent a pixie would come up to bother me or Kitty would attack me."

"Uh I never knew pixies existed in Ever After until that last day at school and Kitty was usually the one to drag me around into the trees with her just for the fun of seeing my reaction to being abducted so suddenly." Raven admitted. "The reason why I didn't climb thing at school was because of the extreme backlash I got when I was spotted a few times by some Royals in the early days of the rebellion."

"Backlash?" Faybelle asks incredulous. "For climbing a tree?"

"I was told that it is considered highly improper for a future Evil Queen to be seen anywhere but on the ground stalking to and fro in an intimidating manner, which more precisely translates to the fact that the maidens got upset that I wasn't in their line of sight and the thought of me being somewhere above them gave them such a fright that they complained to Apple about it. It… was one of the few times we agreed on something back then, she made a very good point about how if I wanted to go about being the rebellious leader I needed to proceed with some decorum that would not cause so much trouble. A making statements with the use of small actions if you will." Raven sighed.

"And as a result you were not allowed to climb trees anymore?" Faybelle shook her head, that didn't sound right.

"Well actually it had gotten to the point where I couldn't just walk around the nice section of the enchanted forest alone for a while. It is customary for maidens to go out and enjoy the virtues of nature in the good side of the forest as part of their destinies, however one sighting of me all alone and " _suspiciously_ " walking down the path…"

"And everybody runs away screaming at your mere presence." Faybelle finishes not sure whether to feel jealous of the witch's former reputation or ticked off that yet again Apple seemed to have popped herself up to yet another major facet of her wife's life, albeit mostly in a surprisingly negative way.

Honestly why did everything these days seem to lead back to either Apple, or Queen Snow White-...? Oh. Wait, yeah… because those two had been the ones who, ultimately, were the ones responsible for not only the witch's current self-exile from her former homelands and the school but also most likely the whole dismal political climate that had initially sent what used to be the Queen kingdom teetering on the edge of near complete ruin in reputation.

Sometimes Faybelle wondered if her mother's suspicions were true, that the former Evil Queen had not started out _completely_ crazy (though she had to have been a little crazy originally), but she had been _pushed_ to insanity, Raven probably knew more about it but Faybelle didn't feel as though the witch would give any forward answers at the risk of saying something really bad about Apple or the queen of Ever After.

Even after everything that has happened the witch still held a tiny sense of loyalty to Apple and her family, at least enough to not want to speak too ill of the White family and simply focused her attention on Faybelle or the new life she was forging for herself here.

"I know some great places for the two of us to explore." Faybelle announced with a consoling smile.

Raven almost seemed to light up excitedly at that. "Really?" The witch's tone seemed to fill with hope at the prospect but then colored in embarrassment. "Gosh I'm sorry if I sound so eager but it's just been so long since I've been allowed to do a lot of things… I just don't know what to do with myself sometimes these days, I feel like I'm a witchling all over again!"

Faybelle thought back to one of Raven's first few days in the Thorn territory and how novel it had been to the witch to wear white linins instead of shades of black and purple all the time. It had been what seemed to Faybelle like the witch enjoyed the little insignificant things that didn't seem much of a big deal to Faybelle personally, but to Raven the concepts of things like wearing different colors and styles of outfits outside of school approved color and design schemes, being allowed and encouraged to climb trees, and not being asked about her stance on yet another Royal versus Rebel conflict, meant so much that the witch seemed to be struck with awe every time a little thing popped up.

It was like reintroducing an animal that had been locked inside of a cage for years back into the wild and the creature was rediscovering the definition of being free.

And it was a wonderful thing to see, how much Raven was growing on the place, however what bothered Faybelle the most was the fact that the fairy got the sense that a lot of the strict restrictions that Raven had been subjected to was due to either Apple's direct influence, or the princess actively not defending her "dear friend" against the other maidens and heroes when she should have known that her word would have made a difference to better the other's life. It was as if the princess was trying to enforce her notion that her villain needed to be feared and secluded.

Extremely un-maiden-like, especially for the fairest princess in school… actually, much to Faybelle's unease, that type of subtle manipulation was better suited for an excellent future villain if one were to look into the traditional context of the school's values...

Very unsettling that notion was.

But none of that mattered now; Apple may be a big dominating part of Raven's past but this was the present with the future spread wide open, and Faybelle, being the better villain that she was planned to slowly carve away at what remained of Raven's affections for Apple and replace that with Faybelle herself and cultivate whatever it was that they had for each other presently into something that was both more permanent and satisfying. She'd already stolen the witch from Apple once, that had been a victory that Faybelle soon realized wetted her instinctual appetite to conquer and covet something that the enemy considered valuable, however _stealing_ the witch's affections _completely_ would be a far more satisfying victory that was sweetened even more by the fact that Raven herself was revealing to be a prize worth winning and fighting for.

"Follow me." Faybelle laughed lightly as she took Raven's slim hand in her own and began leading the other girl off the path and into the wilds where only Faybelle knew which direction was home and what direction led to secluded areas where she could charm and guide the witch further without the risk of family peeking curiously over their shoulders and giving unwanted advice (one of the downsides to trying grand romantic gestures to a new suitor when so many relatives were hanging about thirsting for gossip).

"We are going to have some fun." Faybelle promised with a sly grin and oh, _oh_ Raven giggled like an excited innocent little maiden and clung affectionately to the fairy's side as she looked around them with wide, fascinated eyes and what a joy it would be if this turned out well enough to where the witch wanted to stay forever and satisfy this itch Faybelle had, this need to tempt and seduce such an innocent goodie-goodie like a true Evil Fairy would.

This feeling that had startled Faybelle at first now was rather welcomed, after all what was a fairy villain without someone light and pure to counterbalance it all? The Evil Fairy and the Lady Good King what a ring that had to it!


	4. Chapter 4

_Raven sat still, still wrapped up tightly in her cloak in the luxurious seat, her breathing was deep and the pupils of her eyes appeared to be blown wide open in a classic example of a witch's evolutionary unconscious response to danger, the makeup on her face had been scrubbed away hours ago while waiting by the waters of the sea for their ride because Raven couldn't stand having her face adorned with the traditional Dragon Games rider makeup a second longer, her now unpainted skin far paler than normal, and her lips were reddened and puffy from continual nervous biting that had only ceased and hour previously, Faybelle fancied that it was almost as if the witch appeared to look like a life sized doll of (ironically enough) a traditional Snow White, minus the fancy dress._

 _Raven had not spoken much since they had set out, occasionally her gaze would dart skittishly to either the sun shining through the porthole or to the fish that could be seen through the transparent glass bottom of the boat but that was the only amount of movement that she seemed to allow of herself._

 _At first Faybelle had stubbornly told herself that the silence and the stillness from the other was welcome but that lie had slowly been overtaken by unease and a persistent feeling of worry that just did not seem to allow itself to be crushed by decent reason. Not even the distractions of keeping tabs on her mother's updates on the situation in Ever After and hexting back and forth with Duchess were able to keep the odd feelings at bay for long._

 _Awkwardly Faybelle broke the long silence to inform the witch that they couldn't risk using the direct, traceable routes to the fairy realm territory, not when all of Ever After was looking for them by now, that's what Faybelle had told her after the third hour had passed within the small boat that they were traversing through the East Mirror Sea in._

 _Raven hadn't a clue where they were heading in the first place, let alone that there was a shorter route to wherever they were going, so she couldn't help but feel a little befuddled as to why such a detail mattered at all for a few long moments._

 _But then she sees Faybelle's uncharacteristic awkward fidgeting as the fairy waits for the witch's response and suddenly Raven feels a little guilty for being so gloomy just after everything the other had done._

 _"You were very brave pretending to be so eager to be my mother's minion, I especially appreciate the fact that you were willing to go that far, I certainly know that I would have had more difficulties with my pride at having to work to the bid and call of someone like my mother… thank you." Raven murmured weakly to her shoes. "And for smuggling me out of there, I'm not… I don't how I would have been able to deal with some people now that… certain truths have come to light."_

 _"Hey Briar was only going after me with her fists, you on the other hand, she seemed to be perfectly happy with trying to sweep you up to protectively defend you against this "big bad" fairy who was obviously only after your virtue." Faybelle snorted in amusement._

 _"Er… Briar wasn't the maiden I was talking about." Raven coughed embarrassed, still looking rather down about how things had ended at school._

 _Faybelle itched to speak a cutting remark about said unnamed princess; the words were on the tip of her tongue, fighting to be let out, however Raven appeared to be rather drained at the moment and a fight started between them would not be wise right now. No matter how much Faybelle wanted to speak her exact thoughts towards what she currently thought of Apple, or how much the princess deserved every truthful, harsh word the new Evil Fairy Queen spoke about her, Raven was obviously in no shape to be hearing even more harsh truth out loud, her breakdown in the yearbook grove had made that plainly obvious._

 _It was strange, no longer than… what? Four? Five days ago? The fairy had been completely baffled as to why Raven could possibly turn her back on her destiny so easily as if it were nothing to her and now… it… made sense now, complete, horrible sense. This had never been about cold feet or running away, turning Rebel for Raven had meant a fighting chance at saving herself from being manipulated into a fate that was far worse than any fairytale bad ending._

 _Now Faybelle understood that Raven had never had the chance to redeem anything for the villain community, never would have been allowed the chance to become the great Evil Queen that her kingdom's people desperately needed to come back into glory, not as long as the White royal family had anything to say about it, Raven's fate and the fate of her people be damned! They only cared about using her as the sacrifice they could exploit in order to become more powerful, using people's well cultivated fear of Raven and her mother to make themselves appear like benevolent living gods, never to be questioned only to be served by the unquestioning loyalty of the common peasants._

 _And that was a dangerous game for them to play, part of the reason why there has not been a single war between two fairytale kingdoms in centuries was all due to the carefully maintained traditions and years of integration between the young children of royal family houses before going their separate ways as adults, it's the sense of community, respect, and friendship that has kept all of this going for so long, it was their safety net, for themselves and for their people._

 _And all of that could have very well been obliterated if Raven had not taken action when she did. She had, through complete and utter chaos and dividing up the school with her radical new ideas, stabilized them all from the brink of the beginning of their downfall and had nearly managed to lead and drag them all back to safer ground._

 _Faybelle just hoped that they weathered through this new destabilization, the damage that Apple had wrought upon them all and Raven's hard work all for the sake of one petty, stupid, selfish reason… really Apple could have gotten any Royal villain she wanted in place of Raven why would she possibly go this far to-?_

 _"Faybelle?" Raven asks meekly, looking a little scared at the angry look on the fairy's face (an angry fairy is never a pretty sight to see). "Are… are you mad about… something?"_

 _Faybelle hastily takes a deep breath to calm down; she is embarrassed to find that her lips had curled up from her sharp teeth in what was no doubt a terrifying sneer. She forces herself to focus on keeping her temper in check, extending some measure of mercy to Raven who needs it more than anybody in Ever After right now._

 _"Duchess and my mother have been hexting me all about what's been going on at school…" Faybelle takes another deep breath, her heart racing far faster than she would have liked. "You are allowed to stay with us for as long as you'd like by the way… it's… there is no telling how this will all play out, from what we can gather so far you'd be safer hiding out for a while-"_

 _"Okay, I'll do that." Raven replies meekly._

 _"-I know that's not really your thing but we have put a lot of work into- wait what did you say?" Faybelle turns her confused startled stare back towards the witch._

 _"I said that I'd be willing to hide out for a while… and maybe I should leave my personal phone off and deactivate all of my online social accounts, my father can relay information to Maddie for a while until we've worked out a system that is secure and unhackable by the people I'm trying to avoid…" The witch trials off when she spots Faybelle's wide-eyed look. "What?"_

 _"Uh, nothing, you just seem awfully… prepared for this whole uh, running away with nothing but the clothes on your back thing." Faybelle says blinking slowly._

 _Raven sifts self-consciously. "Well technically Nevermore's coming with me too and as long as I'm safe and able to contact him, my father will be somewhat okay with all this and I will keep in close touch with-"_

 _"You know what I meant." Faybelle scolds. "Normally people in your position would be completely freaked out and unable to function, that is unless they have always sort of figured that they'd have to go on the run someday…"_

 _The witch colors slightly. "I've had plenty of time to think practically for the past few hours." She defended._

 _Faybele gives her a look because bullshit if that's true, one does not think rationally when one's best friend has just betrayed them and the place you once thought was safe turned out to be the most unsafe place you could have ever been living in._

 _"…And maybe a little bit since before Legacy Day…" Raven admits quietly._

 _"That's what I thought." Faybelle nods to herself, feeling a sense of relief that the witch seemed perfectly fine with keeping a low profile, Ancestors knew how many potential issues could rise up if more than a select few people knew where to find them or what was going on. Always better to deal with all that later when it was too late for anybody to change anything._

 _"You'll do fine in my family's territory." Faybelle assured, keeping her gaze at the wall beside her head, trying not to let the pity be too thick on her tongue. "I'll make sure-… you're good at adapting. You'll push through… you're pretty amazing like-… I mean you're decent at that sort of thing… adapting I mean."_

 _Curses, this whole "Apple being bad" thing was affecting her now too, aw hex, maybe staying silent for the rest of the trip was better, Raven was probably looking at her like she was a loon and she really should be focusing more on being happy about becoming the Evil Fairy Queen and acquiring herself the title of the most evilest villain in school by kidnapping their beloved Rebel leader and poisoning their sucky Royal dictator._

 _Yes the look on Apple's face once she had heard the full story had to have been utterly precious._

 _Faybelle was too preoccupied with staring at the wall and her attempts to focus on wondering upon all the little ways she could extend her infamous reputation back at school while also not being there, to notice the small, grateful smile that adorned Raven's face as she finally allowed herself to slump to her side and attempt to get some sleep._

XXX

 ** _Present moon…_**

Raven laughed heartily as she playfully chased a few nymph children around the clearing at the riverside, Nevermore bellowed happily at them when some of the giggling little ones hid under the beast's wings.

Faybelle couldn't help but smile as she leaned against the date palm tree, watching her wife playing with her cousins and how the witch's carefree wide grin seemed to be even more brilliant than the great sun that shone it's light down upon their lands nearly everyday of the year.

Raven had been doing that more and more recently, smiling, laughing, and interacting with the family and the staff, a bright presence that had drawn people's attention in the same way the flowers were drawn towards the sun-

"Obviously she's far more her father's child than her mother's." Faybelle's mother observed wryly. "Of course you already know this if that blissfully possessive stare of yours is of any indication."

"Mom?" Faybelle startles. "What are you doing out here?"

"Come now darling girl you must have some clue, after all you would not have introduced her to your dearest cousins out in the country if she wasn't someone rather special to you." The Evil Fairy cast her daughter a cool knowing look. "I understand that things between you have been going very well lately, I am merely seeing for myself how she is adjusting to all aspects of this realm, after all if all goes well she will become a permanent fixture in our lands as your lovely stolen bride I must observe her in order to formulate a plan to best represent her to our advantage when the time comes."

"You sound so certain that she will stay." Faybelle sighed. "She left a lot of friends behind in Ever After, a lot more than she thought that she really had, and she left behind a lot of people that she deeply respects as well, she may, despite her wariness to the idea want to go back to them at some point. She's a strong one, even with her fears she could still be stubborn enough and brave enough to defend herself just fine against those who are still insisting that none of what happened all those weeks ago counted as real fairytales."

"Ah but the question, my dear daughter, is not whether or not she will go back, but whether or not you will accompany her as her legal spouse." The Evil Fairy pointed out. "Yes she may be stubborn enough to stand her ground against those who oppose her decisions just fine but it would still make more of an impact if the two of you were to stand united, after all it is incredibly difficult to argue that everything must revert back to the way it was when the main key to doing that is married to a lover, I can almost see the fits those people would make over the thought of you merely kissing her let alone that you two may have been acting intimate like a normal newlywed couple consummating the marriage." The woman sniffed in near amusement.

Faybelle colored. "Uh, mom, not so loud about the uh… consummating stuff 'kay? I still haven't- er… we haven't…"

The Evil Fairy shook her head in humored disgust. "My child need I remind you that you are no longer at school? Human established Ever After norms do not apply here, where you are a fully matured fairy and she a young and able witch, on top of that you two are married, if both of you have the inclination there is little reason to hold back."

"She was raised by a human father." Faybelle argued weakly. "She may not see it in the same light as we do."

"And need I remind you that historically the original Snow White was twelve when she married, and barely thirteen when she birthed her first child? And don't even get me started on how difficult it had been for the good fairies that raised the original Sleeping Beauty to stay chaste until she was sixteen, really it was cute that they would have thought that the forest would be a good place to hide the girl but with so many amorous young men gallivanting about on their hunts things had a tendency to happen." The Evil Fairy rolled her eyes.

Faybelle cast her mother a suspicious look. "Is that all actually true?"

The older woman gave the younger a sly glance. "Well I may have exaggerated a bit, but I can assure you that any Ever After royalty who starts shouting on about your ages will be beside themselves if you point out their hypocrisy."

"I take it that the queen and the princess have been righteous little headaches again." Faybelle sighed, sounding and feeling rather tired of those two.

"They have been attempting to prove that it all could have been resolved without us and therefore we must return Raven at once in order for them to properly re-conduct the fairytale "the correct way" and restore things back to their proper order." The Evil Fairy snorted. "Not that it would get them far, since every attempt for them to manhandle us into compliance has only led to the dreaded deep dips in their popularity, I cautiously predict that it won't be long before the queen is forced to cut her losses and must figure out a way to spin this whole mess into something that would work to her favor, preferably without anymore attempts to drag us or Raven down in the process, which… I have it on good authority that she will behave nicely when that happens."

Faybelle knew that was her mother's way of saying that she had blackmail material and was gleefully awaiting the perfect opportunity to use it, the younger fairy knew that her mother had probably been hiding their best cards of attack thus far and was only waiting to see if the enemy would fold before they became a nuisance.

In reality Faybelle knew that Raven could easily take on the queen and princess Snow White publically all by herself with an I'm-not-angry-I'm-just-disappointed-in-the-lot-of-you attitude and defiantly refusing to budge a centimeter in any direction that they wanted her to go, not only would Raven attract even more attention from the populace at large with these antics but Faybelle was certain that her loyal Rebel followers would back her up fiercely, and if things were different the Thorn Clan would be using Raven in precisely that manner.

However the whole point of stealing Raven away like they had was because they needed to keep up their evil appearance as a first step to reviving the villain community's reputation, and it was a perfect storm as it was now to work to their favor:

The Lady Good King willingly sacrificing herself in the name of protecting her loved ones and the people of Ever After from a terrible threat by agreeing to give up her maternal title and become the captive bride of the evil fairies in the event her wicked mother should break free from her prison to wreak havoc upon the worlds, curious little princess Snow White falling into temptation from the dreaded former Evil Queen and willingly betraying her dearest friend in order to fulfill her most desired wish to find a happily ever after in a fairytale with her prince only for it all to go horribly wrong, the sneaky and clever Evil Fairy Queen who tricked the Evil Queen (who was wreaking havoc upon everything just as Lady Good King had predicted) into pricking her finger on a needle and thus cursing her into an eternal slumber that could last centuries before moving onto her next target of princess Snow White as punishment for the human girl's foolishness, brave noble Lady Good King learns of the Evil Fairy Queen's plot to poison princess Snow White and rushes to save the princess on her trusty dragon only to arrive far too late to save princess Snow White from temptation once again, wailing in grief for her fallen friend Lady Good King struggles in the Evil Fairy Queen's hold as the dastardly fairy whisks her away like Persephone being dragged into the underworld by Hades never to return ever again (at least never to return as a student), soon after princess Snow White is awoken from her slumber by not her prince but by a _princess's_ kiss (and yes, CPR does count since it's the "kiss of life"), and so the little princess Snow White does indeed get her most desired wish but at the cost of her dearest friend (and her prince, since she didn't get one).

Faybelle liked this version of the story, as did children's book makers all across the Thorn territories and Raven's father's kingdoms (since trade between their realms was blown wide open soon after word reached everybody of Faybelle and Raven's union), the books were a really big hit much to Raven's eternal embarrassment and wariness.

 _Ooh_ how Snow White had been utterly _furious_ when those books came out, she must have been in a complete panic to discover that the Thorn Clan could fight dirty just as well and even better than she could. Faybelle had it on good authority (Duchess, who was breathless from laughter at the time) that the books have been circulating anonymously all around the school and driving Apple up the wall (Faybelle made sure to pay Kitty handsomely in fish and catnip tea for her assistance).

That along with other little things had forced the Ever After kingdom to proceed carefully with their demands to get Raven back and to revisit the fairytales so that they could be done "properly" this time around.

"Raven won't let it get that far if they are dumb enough to try their luck." Faybelle informed her mother. "She's already drafted several sternly worded letters to be sent out to shame Apple into giving up, she says that a direct, tactile reminder of the severance of their friendship and Apple's betrayal should be more than enough to get the princess at the very least to stop. Personally those letters are too politely written for my tastes but I trust that she knows what she is doing, after all it has already been proven that they cannot force her to do anything that she does not want to do."

"All the better that she is on our side." The Evil Fairy smirks. "And all the more better that she has snared your affections." The woman disappears into a puff of smoke leaving behind her startled daughter.

"Faybelle was that your mother just now?" Raven asks, startling the younger fairy once again when she finds the witch mere feet away and coming closer.

Raven looks radiant in her long-skirted white linen dress, the silhouette of her shapely body visible from the light behind her, her once pale skin darkened by the kiss of the intense sun, hair sleek from being nourished by local oils and soaps applied to it by the servants who work in the cleaning pools, her eyes bright and wide as a maiden's. The perfect vision of a content desert witch as far as Faybelle was concerned.

"Mom just wanted to stop by to tell me about the talks going on in regards to whether we managed to fulfill two fairytale stories or somehow created a new one altogether." Faybelle half-lied, knowing that Raven was sick to death of hearing about Snow White's latest antics.

Raven rolled her eyes so hard that Faybelle was almost afraid that they'd fall out of her skull. "I swear, sometimes I think that Wonderland is the place full of sane people and the rest of the fairytale worlds are the insane ones. Don't they have better things to do?"

"Apparently not." Faybeled chuckled motioning the witch to come closer. "C'm here lovely bride of mine, let's watch the young ones together until they tire out long enough for us to tell them a story."

"It's not going to be the story of the day we wed again is it? How many times have they heard it by now? Surely they must be tired of it." Raven shook her head in disgust making Faybelle laugh.

"Oh but it's their favorite story dearest! Especially since you're the one who does all those silly voices and sound effects." Faybelle pointed out smugly. "Besides, the tale has some lovely educational morals to it that are important to drive home for young children their age, and they think that it's sweet of you to be so sad for Apple for not getting at least her prince in the end."

"And you always nearly ravage my neck every time it gets to the part where you whisk me away." Raven growled lightly. "It's a good thing they think that it's funny and that you actually know when to stop when we're in front of them. Speaking of princes, have your contacts heard word of how Darling is getting on? I was going to ask Briar while she had been here the other day but never got around to it. I'm behind in all of the gossip right now and while I don't go to that school anymore I should probably try to catch up and get a read for the political climate."

Faybelle hummed in approval at the other's reasoning. "Duchess says that after Apple had made it clear that she was completely unconvinced that Darling was her prince Holly O'Hair swooped in and nabbed Darling for herself."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"…So… after all of that trouble to have a happy ending…?"

"She throws away the hero of her story? Yep." Faybelle nods.

"…And this was the same girl who used to assure me that every fairytale version happened differently, to expect the unexpected and just hop in and hope for the best." The tone of Raven's sigh sounding very hurt, because apparently by Apple's reasoning it had been perfectly alright for Raven to risk being miserable and all alone save for the times when Apple deemed it convenient to call up her old roommate for a chat (that is if Apple even bothered herself with Raven at all once her usefulness to the princess was done), but heavens forbid if one tiny thing strayed from Apple's pre-planned visions of her role in the story then it apparently "didn't count" and had to be done all over again.

"Good for Holly, Darling will make a fantastic prince for her I'm certain of it." Raven smiled fondly, forcibly shaking off her dreary mood over Apple. The princess was in the past, she kept telling herself, Faybelle was her future, and she should work on moving on now so that she could stop hurting.

"More and more people seem to be benefiting from all of this." Faybelle observed teasingly, pointedly possessively nibbling at Raven's ear in the attempts to perhaps drive Apple out of the witch's brain. "Holly gets her perfect prince, Briar is free from her cursed obligation, your mother can't harm anyone, many Rebels now have a little less to worry about since the school isn't pushing as hard for them to conform, some even being free from that school entirely, you are finally free from your mother's shadow, and I not only got to fulfill two fairytale villain roles but I also got you."

Raven smiled softly as she gazed at the other. "Yeah you did." She murmurs before pulling Faybelle in for a kiss.

XXX

 ** _Many moons previous…_**

 _The first night was the hardest, it always was, Faybelle didn't know what had possessed her to drag Raven into her bed when the witch had been provided her own quarters next door but at least she hadn't been a pest like Faybelle had thought she might've been back before the Evil Queen had escaped. Mostly the witch stayed very still and quiet, not making more than the occasional sniffle as fat tears ran down her face, the feelings of betrayal and fear rolling off of her so thickly that Faybelle couldn't squash the open look of pity crossing her face for the next few hours or the deep welling instinct to just… punch someone, namely Apple, because this was not how her former rival was supposed to be acting. Raven should have been indignant and embarrassed at her predicament and Faybelle was supposed to tease her mercilessly until everything settled down and they could get a divorce, and then Faybelle would have gone back to school and gloated about her well-earned victory and took up the role-model position that Raven had been unable to step into for the villain community._

 _But Raven was not resistant against being spirited away and married to Faybelle, she was resigned and willing, she didn't act indignant towards her situation but seemed to pull tentatively closer to Faybelle and the Evil Fairy like a frightened animal seeking protection. Neither of them could go back to school anytime soon, perhaps not ever now that the realization of what all of this meant for them was made painfully plain._

 _Her mother had kept a dispassionate tone as she regaled to the packed great hall of assembled family and political ministers, brought together for an emergency meeting, the identity of the one who had let the Evil Queen go and the reasons why the woman had been allowed to be free for so long, how the new princess Snow White had wished to force Raven into her role by any means necessary and how she had aided the former Evil Queen, how further investigation revealed that queen Snow White had been threatened by Raven's growing support and popularity and had used her power and influence to orchestrate a way to boost both her and Apple's likability and superiority over the other children of monarchs and rulers willingly using the Evil Queen as a dangerous ploy to showcase this by allowing her to stay free temporarily and planned to make a big show of capturing her once again when the criminal finally showed her true colors, demonstrating to all how good their family was and how dangerous and untrustworthy Raven and other villain children were through their cursed blood._

 _Raven appeared to try to shrink away as Faybelle's mother elaborated further on little details that she had discovered when interrogating the staff and queen Snow White, threatening to leave them in their animal bodies if they did not cooperate in telling their stories, standing between Faybelle and the Evil Fairy at the head of the room on top of the throne platform was bad enough but hearing about how the elder Snow White was scheming to throw her future and hard won Rebel reputation out the window so that Apple could go back to being the more popular one visibly frightened her to the point where she shook where she stood._

 _Faybelle couldn't hide her shock when her mother had placed a protective hand upon the trembling witch's shoulders, casting everyone a warning look as she informed them how Raven had tried to warn people of the former Evil Queen's deception and how the former Evil Queen herself had betrayed her own daughter by framing her for a crime that had forced the witch to flee the school as hostilities directed towards her grew. It was a silent order for everyone to understand that Raven was not to be touched or harassed, that she was now their ally in this._

 _Her mother was formulating a plan of action, Faybelle knew this, what it was exactly the younger fairy was unsure but the woman had hinted to something that could involve using the story of how they had gotten custody of Raven to their advantage and tastefully slandering the White family to the common folk while they were at it._

 _Unable to sleep and clueless as to how to comfort the mourning form curled up in the sheets beside her, Faybelle began flipping through the unread hexts in her phone and reading through Blondie's blogs._

 _A few hexts were from Duchess informing her how everyone was freaking out and how hilariously mad Briar was at her, most of Briar's hexts were written in a hilariously angry tone and with surprisingly colorful language demanding that Faybelle return to school with Raven in tow and put an end to this madness this instant-oh-my-god-Faybelle-you-are-so-dead-when-I-get-my-hands-on-you, etcetera, etcetera (and oh how Faybelle's ego swelled just a bit more at seeing these exasperated demands). The other hexts that Briar sent were inquiries in regards to Raven's wellbeing, these were the ones that Faybelle responded to._

 _Ginger was much more polite in her inquiries towards both their wellbeings, even going as far as to wish the two of them luck and to ask if there would be an appropriate time for her to visit them seeing as how she still could travel even with a broken arm._

 _There was an indication in the corner of her screen that she had an awful lot of blocked hexts and calls from unknown numbers; Faybelle patted herself on the back for taking the time to program her phone to stop any unwanted caller from reaching her or leaving a message earlier in the escape boat._

 _Raven's earlier sentiment of her desire to give up using her personal phone to prevent hacking flitted briefly across her mind as a stray thought, but was quickly dismissed._

 _Curiously Faybelle flicked through some news reports to find that everything was indeed in complete chaos, over there- oh wait she just got a hext from Duchess-…_

 _Wait. What?_

 _"What?" Faybelle stared at her phone's screen in utter bafflement._

 _Raven makes a watery inquisitive noise, turning over to face Faybelle with her puffy wet eyes._

 _"Duchess says that Daring wasn't the one to wake Apple." Faybelle explains. "It was his sister Darling."_

 _A pause._

 _"What?" The witch croaks out._

 _Faybelle's phone dings again._

 _The fairy squints. "…Duchess says that Maddie took a picture and gave it to her for evidence…"_

 _Another ding indicating another message and this time Faybelle's eyebrows hide under her bangs they rise so high._

 _Raven drags herself over in order to peer over Faybelle's shoulder. "…That's…"_

 _"Darling kissing Apple." Faybelle finishes._

 _"Why are Darling's cheeks puffed out like that? Is she blowing air into Apple's mouth while they kiss?" Raven points at the screen in confusion._

 _"I'm more concerned with why Maddie gave this to Faybelle to give to me." Faybelle scratches her head._

 _"Maddie's always been protective of me." Raven reveals. "And she's never quite warmed up to Apple despite Maddie always being polite around her. This… may have been enough for her to show off her protective side, perhaps she's looking to you to cause a bit of trouble…"_

 _"Sounds like a good friend." Faybelle states approvingly._

 _"It's good that you feel that way because she's going to be coming here for welfare visits regularly. Since she's practically part of my family you guys don't get a choice in that." Raven smirks crookedly, her first smile all evening._


	5. Chapter 5

A/n: There is a reason why I put Apple in with the list of characters at the top, because as much as this story is about Faybelle and Raven falling in love this is also my personal head-canon about how Apple might claw her way out of heartbreak and what she may consider the worst scenario possible for her, it's going to get worse before it gets better for Apple but since I'm still kind of a fan of hers I wanted to include her here and have her figure her own life out which I feel she kind of needs to seriously do in the cannon because it just can't continue on like this and I still want to like her (despite a certain movie that seriously paints her in a light that I wouldn't call trustworthy, and the neighbor's kids are complaining loudly about how simply saying your sorry shouldn't have been enough for Raven to totally forgive Apple since that kind of betrayal takes a lot of time to heal and I'm sitting there wondering where the hell did they learn to think like this because not even most adults _I_ know understand the difference between forgiving a minor infraction and a betrayal so intense that to just forgive someone immediately just invites them to hurt you again).

I'm not too certain that Raven and Apple will ever be friends again in this story (I don't know since I'm still in the process of writing it) and it's not going to be a fast process for Apple (who's got the self-preservation instincts of a flea), she's smart but she's spent so long playing the part of the perfect ditzy princess and until Raven came along she's has had everything handed to her on a gold pressed silver platter, and it's obvious that the same goes for her mother so without her main influence in life having something substantial to make it immediately all better (aka getting Raven back to Ever After) Apple is going to be forced to use the part of her intelligence that she's never had to exorcise before and learn how to fight to mold destiny to her will and get herself a happy ending and actually _work_ to become a good future queen instead of just _acting_ like one.

That said it's going to take a while for Apple, mostly because Raven had always played the part of the voice of reason and the trusted advisor for Apple, and now that Raven isn't there to pick Apple up and make everything better along with the fact that most of Apple's friends are so very disappointed in her because they knew she knew better… it's going to take a bit.

XXX

Apple is at a loss of what to do, how to feel, nothing is the same, nothing is _right_ anymore.

Raven was… gone, vanished completely with nothing left behind to mark her existence save for old digital photos on the mirrornet and the picture on Apple's vanity. There was nothing of the witch's left behind after the fairies had been through with everything.

Raven made a deal with the Evil Fairy and _Faybelle_ to take out the Evil Queen if she ever escaped, which did make sense in regards to the fact that the woman was evil and had to be stopped from taking over everything, but still this was Raven's mother, she hired people to take out her _own mother_ and as payment she gave up her destiny and her name and agreed to let them take her away from school forever and now nobody was able to contact her and all of her online accounts had disappeared and the school was in complete chaos and-…

And it was all Apple's fault. Raven was gone because of her.

The Evil Queen was _nothing_ like how her mother had described. She… Apple didn't even know _what_ she had been expecting from the woman but it certainly was _not_ the creature that she had seen that last day! The Evil Queen was supposed to be evil, sure, but… not _that evil_? Surely Apple had expected the woman to have been more… manageable, she…-she had been pretending to be what Apple _wanted_ that was obvious, the perfect sympathetic ear and voice of reason as she brushed Apple's hair so tenderly…

She had seemed so _stable_ , just like Raven often was with her in regards to issues that did not relate to destiny, in a lot of ways Raven's mother had acted just like Raven would with Apple when destiny was not involved… but it was better because the Evil Queen was evil, or at least acted like the kind of evil that Apple had always wanted Raven to become, and she was _willing_ to get close enough to lay her hands upon Apple's shoulders and brush her hair for her and… Raven usually tensed when Apple hugged her and Raven never felt comfortable enough to offer to brush Apple's hair like a…

…Why did Apple want Raven to brush her hair? That was… odd wasn't it? But it wasn't as odd as to why her mother's description of the Evil Queen was so different than the actual Evil Queen. Apple's mother always said that high school was the best years of her life and that her rivalry with the Evil Queen was a big reason why that was so. Snow White was, of course, good, and since good _always_ triumphed over evil Apple's mother _always_ won… or at least that's what her mother said always happened.

Apple's father always shook his head and murmured quietly to Apple that her mother liked to _believe_ that she always won, but Apple… never really paid much attention to her father's words, not when her mother was in the room, her mother could always fill up a room with her presence and everyone aside from Apple just seemed to… fade into the background, particularly when her mother talked about the Evil Queen, her mother always loved talking about the Evil Queen and what Apple should expect from Raven, encourage Raven to become if Raven wanted to be as half as perfectly evil as her mother and Apple deserved nothing but the best and since Raven was born for perfect little Apple, the princess had a responsibility to guide Raven into that same perfection.

Perhaps the Evil Queen had… changed since high school? Raven would know the answer to that, Raven seemed to know a lot of things that Apple didn't but… of course now Apple couldn't ask her.

She didn't even get a chance to apologize! Faybelle had-… she had _tricked_ her! Poisoned her! Took Raven's destiny away! She stole it! That role in their story belonged to Raven and- and she just… _took it_!

Raven's wailing screams haunted Apple's dreams, the witch racing to warn Apple of the danger but came mere seconds too late, and Faybelle forcibly kissing raven into submission… as if she were laying claim as she forced the witch to stay quiet…

Apple's fault, she had invited that, she had placed Raven into this situation and the witch was probably terrified right now. …All because Apple couldn't see past the promise of her perfect fairytale ending, an ending that she had yet to receive Apple was certain because this… was not what she wanted or was promised!

But Apple knew that they could work out something from this… the destiny was all Raven's, it didn't count when Faybelle did it, the fact that Daring hadn't been the one to wake her was proof that the story hadn't played out, they just needed to get Raven back that was all. Apple could apologize when they got her back and then they could go back to how it was before everything had happened and-… well Raven may still be against becoming the Evil Queen but that was fine by Apple. _Gods_ Apple would be happy as punch as long as she got Raven back; it didn't matter if Raven never fully forgave her or never became the Evil Queen as long as the witch came back, Apple was going hysterical without her!

But they would get her back, that's how they worked; no matter how badly they fought Raven always came back, they had to get her back for Apple, her mother _promised_ that they'd get her back-… it couldn't just end like this, with so much left unsaid between them! Raven just wouldn't… _leave forever_ , she wouldn't leave Apple forever, they were best frienemies- no… they were _best friends_! Forever after! Raven would come back and everything would go back to how it was!

…Right?

XXX

Slowly but surely Raven was assimilating herself into her new life and role, from switching out most dark colors from her old wardrobe to adopting the lighter colors and breezy styles more suited to their dessert home, beginning to take on the royal duties of helping to rule the territories as Faybelle's wife, to learning the native language and customs.

Raven still missed her homeland, she was a northern seaside witch to the end, that much was obvious with the way she would wistfully speak of the place, but she had grown comfortable in the Thorn territory rather quickly (amazing how one clings to a change of scenery and adapts so quickly when one is afraid of what waited for her _if and when_ she did come back to visit her old home), soon enough as the weeks turned to months and the seasons began to change she was beginning to be considered by the family and the people as a potential permanent fixture, regarded widely as a budding proper _Lady Good King_ in her own right despite her age.

The respect and kindness others showed towards her was utterly _mind-blowing_ for the witch who had become so accustomed to people's fear and automatic hatred of her mere presence in a room, at first she could barely believe it (nor did she trust it) it just made no sense.

 _"It's different because this is a realm ruled by a villain family."_ Faybelle had exasperatedly explained to Raven when the witch had tentatively asked why everyone was not afraid of her, even going as far as to be nice to her. _"Come on, you know how it's like; in our home kingdoms and in the kingdoms of our evil peers the people love and revere us, and in other kingdoms the people and rulers show their respect and regard our immense power in awe."_

 _"Actually I never knew that was how it was supposed to be." Raven confessed a sort of awed quiet in her voice. "My father doesn't know that I had found out but I know that he was petrified for my life due to my mother's actions resulting in death threats aimed at me, and he had no desire to conceive or adopt any other heirs, honestly before my rebellion and before you, he was resigned to combining his kingdom and my mothers before helping to instigate a monarch-free government to save the common people from any backlash, and I certainly used to be dead set on never bearing any children of my own lest my mother manage to get ahold of them and do who knows what, on top of the fact that I never would impose my lonely childhood and reputation onto my children."_

Faybelle had swallowed thickly and gone very wide-eyed and quiet, not a day after that Raven had found herself thrown into the tender care of Faybelle's two closest cousins, a fairy named Moss and a half-born-witch named Charlotte, for immediate courses in how to properly conduct oneself in public appearances and in the throne room. The lessons proved very useful later on when Raven decided to take a more active roll as Faybelle's bride and Raven knew that she was going to need the skills even more so in the future, the Evil Fairy having warned Raven that they would attempt to establish more good PR for her (while also ensuring that the Thorn Clan still seemed as evil as possible) by quietly smuggling her into different quarantined worlds so that Raven could remove her mother's curse from them.

Raven hadn't even been aware that she was actually comfortable, dare she even think it that she was _happy_ even with her current situation until her father had pointed it out to her one day during one of their daily calls. He assured her that he would support her and that he approved of her unconventional situation, even though he would miss her being able to come home on the weekends, he still could visit her, and he was very proud of her for being so brave and forging a better fate for herself.

That's when Raven began considering taking steps to perhaps make this whole thing more permanent.

"Hey Faybelle what is the significance of these people in the portraits who have the tattooed designs on them?" Raven asked innocently, already knowing the answer but using this as an opportunity to begin the conversation. A technique she had learned in her lessons.

"Huh, they haven't taught you about that yet?" Faybelle asked, blissfully clueless as she glanced up at a rather large portrait in the hallway. "Those are magicked henna tattoos used for brides and the betrothed, see those designs here and there inside the circles? That's the ancient symbol for the Thorn clan, this particular pattern of tattooing is reserved for acquired brides like you though you don't have to get the henna if you don't want given the situation."

"And what if I want to be covered in the henna tattoos for all to see that I am your bride?" Raven asked, smiling angelically as she began to move closer to the other.

Still as of yet to catch on Faybelle gave the witch a nervous look. "Well such a thing would require a special ceremony and once more, once you get the tattoos people would be under the impression that you have decided to try to stay here permanently, or have been made to stay here for a lot longer than originally planned, which I would not be complaining about at all by the way, however given that you like your independence so much I could never ask you to publically show that you are tied down to me."

Raven huffed out a laugh, her expression turning mischievous. "It would hardly be like me being tied down if I am doing so out of my own free will and desires dearest beloved, we have been together for a great number of months and married even longer then that, would it not then make perfect sense if I was willing and you were willing, to try to slowly take steps to make this more… permanent?"

Faybelle's brain fizzed in and out of rational thought at the news. "You _want_ to _stay_?" The fairy asked tentatively.

"As long as you want me to stay." Raven promised wholeheartedly.

"…You already knew about the tattoos, didn't you." Faybelle deadpanned, though the full effect was lost to her breathlessness when Raven languidly stretched her arms around Faybelle's neck and pulled herself flush to the other's frame.

"I wanted to see where you stood with all of this. Make sure my proposal wasn't moving too fast for our relationship." Raven admitted without a hint of apology.

"…And?" Faybelle asked, blush painting her face, her mind turning foggy and dizzy.

"Shouldn't I be the one to ask that question?" Raven smirked teasingly, eyes half-lidded and her lips centimeters away from Faybelle's own.

Faybelle answered by kissing her, hard, wrapping the witch up into her arms and deepening the contact with increasing heat.

"Still in the hall." Raven warned when she moved her head to the side for air.

"Right." Faybelle picked the witch up and hurried towards her room. Hoping that they hadn't cause too much of a scene for the brief moments it took to finagle the door open and closing it before pressing Raven up against the nearest wall and kissing her breathless.

"Is that a yes to the tattoo thing?" Raven giggled when they came up for air.

"What do you think?" Faybelle laughed and kissed the witch some more.

XXX

Weeks had passed, the dust had settled, Raven was still gone but she was still the fairest of them all at school, nobody questioned that, nobody, said a single bad word to her face most days or acted out of place while she was around.

And that was the problem; almost no one was the same around her anymore, they were too formal, too polite, too distant, it was almost as if… as if…

It was almost as if they were… afraid of her?

Or maybe it had always been that way and she hadn't noticed until now, until she had been forced to see.

Because all of her old close friends didn't treat her the same, weren't around school anymore, or even were her _friends_ anymore! Without them around Apple was… she was the daughter of Snow White, not Apple White.

She almost missed the first few days when she and Briar used to scream at each other and couldn't go a few seconds in the same space of one another without arguing with each other, now there was nothing but bitter silence, terse politeness, and avoidance at all costs.

Blondie kept trying to act normal… but never really wanted to hear about it, making excuses to leave every time Apple tried to vent out her troubles with a strained apologetic look and Apple couldn't un-see the greenish tint to the other's skin or the pained wincing whenever Apple tried to justify herself that clearly indicated that Blondie thought that Apple really was in the wrong here but refused to say a word about it.

Ashlynn had been transferred out of school and moved away due to her injuries; Apple hadn't been given the chance to talk to her much, even though she really wanted to. Apple always got the impression that Ashlynn's parents didn't want her around their daughter anymore and Hunter flat-out made it clear without even using words that Apple was not welcome to talk to Ashlynn even on mirror-chat, what with the excuses they all kept making to deny her speaking to her friend.

…Perhaps that even meant that Ashlynn didn't want to speak to Apple either.

Daring was… still crying over his sister waking Apple up and moving double-time through dates with other girls to gain back his princely charms… Apple rarely saw hide or hair of him he was so busy.

Dexter was an utter mess, he and Raven may not have worked out past a few dates but he still loved her and he was going out of his mind wondering why she never tried to contact him like she was rumored to have been doing with the Rebels.

The Royals were always polite with her, but it wasn't the same, there was something… off with the way they always agreed with everything she said, laughed when she laughed, spoke only when they were spoken to…

The Rebels that stayed at school either feared her or despised her, though usually nobody would say an unkind word to her face, it was very clear that they did not trust her in the slightest, and thus feigned ignorance whenever she begged them to send a letter or a message of hers along to Raven, because Apple knew that they were keeping contact with the witch through Maddie but were keeping very quiet about it.

Surprisingly Duchess didn't speak anything too callus, though she did shed some light onto why everyone was acting so strangely when she made a reference to not wanting to be the most popular maiden in school anymore less she get on Apple's bad side by having more popularity points than the fairest princess in her own home kingdom.

 _That_ had stung. Landing far too close to the heart of the matter that started all of this than what Apple had been comfortable with.

Her mother _was_ still despairing over Raven's popularity points being higher that Apple's, and the inability to wrangle Raven back from the fairies, but since the fall of the Evil Queen her mother had seemed… preoccupied, growing more and more so with each passing week, Apple's sources from the family castle reported that the queen had ordered her personal study to be redesigned and had the unconscious body of the Evil Queen moved there. The sources hinted that Apple's mother spent a great deal of her free time in that room for some reason…

And that horrible children's storybook circulating around the school wasn't helping her mood! Apple was a true and forgiving maiden down to her blood but _Grimm Ancestors almighty_ did she _abhor_ that wretched thing! Recounting the events of that day as if it were a whole new story!

She's not even sure why the Thorns are acting like Ever After is looking to start a war and annihilate anything resembling a fairytale villain be it a witch, fairy, or something else. The talks going on between her mother and the Evil Fairy just run in circles with the villain's advisors accusing her mother of wanting to use Raven to bring back the "bad times" in order to become more powerful, Apple didn't even know what these "bad times" were and neither did her mother since the fairies refused to elaborate.

The Grimm Brothers were worried; Apple could tell they knew something more than what they were letting on by their twitchiness and several near verbal slipups. But they resolutely refused to tell anybody what was going on, not even Apple's mother.

And thus with everything being a complete and utter mess under the surface, it was just easier to go about her day pretending that all was well and all was normal as the weeks turned to months and the seasons changed. It was too easy to slip back into the smiling persona of a perfect happy princess, all an act now with no one that had mattered to her to speak to.

And soon enough a majority of the school- minus those Apple used to be close to- went back to treating her as always; the native heir to the throne of Ever After, princess Snow White, the future queen.

But it was utter agony trying to believe her own lies pretending that all was back to normal and everything was fine!

Apple couldn't take much more of not knowing what was going on, desperate measures had to be taken!

The question was how to go about it.

XXX

"Snow white was doing _what_?" Faybelle asked staring at the two stone elves in non-comprehension. On either side of her the Evil Fairy pinches the bridge of her nose as if she were in pain and Raven made a _very_ unimpressed squinty face.

"It twas true young Evil Fairy Queen, I bore witness to dis as well! Queenie Snow Whites had de former Evil Queen in dis room ya see-"

"An' she was talkin' to 'er an' touchin' her like she twas a dead lov'er!"

"Well maybe not a dead lov'er Tog, maybe it twas like a sick friend…"

"Dey was never friends Nog, dey was enemies, an' former Evil Queen was set on killin' Queenie remembers? 'Sides it's odd to be talkin' to an unconscious person who hates you 'bout how dey was born fer each other an' touchin' 'er so intimately an' de like."

"Intimately but not inappropriately correct?" Evil Fairy interrupted looking vaguely grossed out.

"No naughty touchin', though queenie did say some embarrassin' tings when she got hammered alone in de room wit hard cider, you 'eard her too Nog."

"I'm tryin' to ferget dat night Tog."

"Why would Snow White put her worst enemy, the same woman who had planned on killing her, in a room in her home?" Faybelle asked, because it just didn't make sense.

"Because Snow White always believed that the Evil Queen was born solely for her." Evil Fairy crossed her arms. "The former Evil Queen said as much when we fought after she woke Sleeping Beauty up early. She knew how manipulative the woman really was, and it vexed her that she had been used as nothing but a tool and thrown away when her use to the story was over."

"She did not want to be forgotten or cast aside as someone not important or just another cog in a long line of Evil Queens." Raven sighed tiredly. "She wanted to be remembered to be just as important, if not even more so, to her story counterpart."

"Is that why she went crazy?" Faybelle asked, looking at Raven worry.

"Partially… mostly, she was never really stable in the head to begin with." Raven admitted. "But she also did it for me, I don't know how much of it was for me and not just for her, but… some of it was because of me."

"The constant clashes between the former Evil Queen and queen Snow White ended up damaging the former Evil Queen's reputation extensively, they no loner viewed her with any kind of respect or importance and that only got worse due to queen Snow White constantly dragging the former Evil Queen's name through the mud to make herself seem superior instead of an equal counterpart, when Raven was born that damaging reputation began transferring onto her, even as a baby." The Evil Fairy sighed.

"My father believes that is what broke her in the end, when people regarded me as nothing but an abomination instead of a proper future Evil Queen, he refuses to go into detail on what exactly had changed her so much but… when I was very small I had a loving mother who was always there, and then one day the mother I knew was gone and the Evil Queen had taken her place, and even before they imprisoned her I barely got to see her anymore." Raven remembered sadly. "I just hope that she is unaware of what is going on around her… this would be very difficult for her."

"So… essentially this would be her own personal hell if she was aware for all of this." Faybelle translated looking appalled, suddenly Apple's attitude towards Raven being her one and only villain took a new horrifying twist.

"If you want to put it into those words…" Raven coughed, wincing at the mental image.

"So… should Tog an' I go an' spare former Evil Queen from hell?"

Tog whacked Nog upside his stone head. "Ow! I'm just askin'!"

"I don't want the former Evil Queen anywhere near me, no matter how sorry I feel for her, she could never be the same mother I used to love." Raven objected, looking fearful at the idea of her mother being anywhere near the fairy realms.

"The spell allows the sleeper to dream periodically in order to keep the mind from deteriorating, many Sleeping Beauties have reported having a choice to listen to friends and loved ones from school talking to them or just dreaming, after a while the brain does go into suspended stasis for years at a time. Unless queen Snow White acts out of character and begins abusing the former Evil Queen's unconscious body, or somehow lives longer than a hundred years, kisses the former Evil Queen, and has turned out to be the former Evil Queen's one-true-love all along… we will do nothing."

"At least we'll always know where my mother is." Raven shrugged.

"Speaking of knowing where people are, it would seem as though a majority of the population at Ever After do not know of your fate, nor of your marriage to my daughter." The Evil Fairy announced giving the two girls a raise of an eyebrow.

"Aside from the strict control the Grimm brothers have over the outside news that circulates in and out of school, we aren't completely certain how those who do know have managed to keep such a tight lid on things, nor why for that matter…" Raven admits sharing a look with Faybelle. "I've asked, and there are individuals with individual reasons, but nobody wants to explain why they are all keeping this a secret."

"Well as admirable as their discretion is, the topic of legal legitimacy has come up in her royal highness's demands for Raven to come back to school and your father has been called into question for not doing a thing to fight you back into Ever After." The Evil Fairy leans back. "Obviously we need to do something about this before they manage to cause trouble."

"Why have they waited until now to pull that card?" Raven asked baffled. "It's been months!"

"Everybody assumed that you would pull something heroically rebellious and return to them by now." Faybelle explained with a pointed look. "The Grimm Brothers in particular are growing increasingly worried over your silence."

And it wasn't an exaggeration either, the brothers had also made many private demands that Raven be returned to school and the marriage broken up immediately, even going as far as to attempt to storm the old ancestral homestead in the forbidden dead forest beside the Briar kingdom with nothing but blustering political threats and the assumption that Raven was being kept there. How silly of the men to forget that the Thorn Clan ruled vast provinces in the fairy realms in a world obscured far away from the fairytale lands.

But then again maybe they were just trying the best that they could and this was only the beginning.

Raven bit her lip. "Maddie and Briar said that Giles was concerned for me despite my letters assuring him that I'm perfectly fine, and that the Headmaster has grown… well I wouldn't say worried for me given my history with him but he does seem very concerned with the dwindling attendance of students at his school and the ruckus queen Snow White has been making…" Because the thought of the man who once so cruelly tried to trick her and didn't have more security protocols in place around her mother's prison at the very least and at the very most cared enough to keep the woman far away from a school filled with children, being at all worried for her wellbeing just didn't compute.

"Which is why you are going to make a public appearance, the border between the fairy realm of Shrink and it's symbiotic natural neighbor the Wick kingdom has been blocked by one of the former Evil Queen's curses leaving much of the land between barren and too toxic to live in, we will bring you in quietly so that nobody unwanted shows up, have you reverse the curse like you did with Wonderland, and then put on this big show to the people of how you bravely acted like a true Lady Good King and bartered and negotiated with your wife's family, using your captive marriage to your advantage in order to gain a sponsor to finally rid the worlds of the last visages of the former Evil Queen's curse. Like how it should have been done months ago when people discovered that it had been you who freed Wonderland but for some reason the kingdom of Ever After had insisted that you do nothing since you were supposed to be evil."

The Evil Fairy gave a slightly sly smirk that cracked her stoic façade just a little. "Of course the Thorn Clan will be getting much out of this as well, naturally we will imply that in exchange for you to clean up your mother's wrongs and spare all of these worlds you had to make another deal with us… one that cost you even more than what you originally agreed to, since we are so very evil and all."

Faybelle grinned tangling her fingers into Raven's "Indeed we are." She cooed at her wife who giggled and smiled back.

"And since the popular opinion these days is that if one is of a family is of evil decent, they can't be allowed to take mercy on others and do what the establishment has considered "good deeds" when all of the "good" royal families and kingdoms are just sitting around and letting others suffer, well… it's a good thing all those cursed worlds and lands now have a champion willing to sacrifice all that she has to make things right now isn't it?" The Evil Fairy's smirk widened, revealing a row of sharp fanged teeth. "Since we are so evil and the good kingdoms would never allow the shame of an evil family helping them."

Raven grinned broadly. "Well I guess I had little choice but to do what I could for those people, after all I am wed to an evil family, and since I am so rebellious and the new Lady Good King I am only too happy to do what I can since I had been confined and unsponsored in Ever After to do what needed to be done."

"How very brave of you to turn to us instead of continuing in vain to appeal to the higher powers of Ever After." Faybelle's expression was downright wicked.

It was perfect, they had an excuse now to conduct business the same way it always had been done in the past, before the former Evil Queen and the recent queen Snow White had complicated things with their rivalry.

"Er… we doesn't get wat you is talkin' abouts." Nog raised his hand, he and his partner giving identical stony expressions of confusion.

"It means that you two will be going on a fieldtrip with us." The Evil Fairy clarified.

"Really? No more watching queenie gets plastered an' talkin abouts how she always had a guilty fantasy of-"

"'M still tryin to ferget dat night Tog!"

"You are officially relived of that duty for now in favor of keeping watch to make sure no unwanted spectators try to steal Raven back to Ever After." The Evil Fairy assured.

"Yaaay fieldtrip!" Twin gravely voices cheered.


	6. Chapter 6

Something was up with the Rebels and Blondie today, everyone was all conspiracy and whispers in the halls and Blondie's news crew was zipping to and fro.

"Any idea as to what is going on?" Apple asked Daring as she walked up to him at breakfast, she sat her food down at the opposite end of the table from the prince since he was flanked on both sides by maidens who were taking turns getting selfies with the boy who was distracted by his refection in the mirror.

"I think that I may be getting a stress pimple!" Daring exclaimed in horror. "Oh the humanity first my destiny and now my beautiful face?"

"Right." Apple said turning to Dexter.

Dexter looked from side to side to make sure the coast was clear before leaning in to whisper. "Apparently some big news is about to be televised in regards to why the Grimm Brother's have been so antsy about Raven not returning back to school. Blondie had me hack the school's outside news blocks and open them temporarily so that everyone can see what the Headmaster hasn't wanted us to see for the past few months."

Apple perked up immediately. "This is news about Raven?"

Dexter nodded his face solemn. "I have a suspicion that some Rebels may already know what this is all about but apparently they don't think that Raven is in any danger with her current situation so they're keeping quiet to respect her privacy… also I'm pretty sure that there is some sort of betting pool going on but I can't be too sure… since nobody is telling me when I ask that is."

"They… knew what was going on?" Apple whispers stunned, she already knew this of course but hearing it spoken out loud still managed to send a shock of pain through her chest, the princess's stomach clenching when her eyes strayed to where Briar sat with the other Rebels talking excitedly with them and surveying the discrete exchange of goods under the table. She was the Rebel faction's new unofficial leader now; which was if the rumors were true, endorsed and supported by Raven herself at some point.

It hurt that it had gotten to the point where Briar knew something very important that Apple needed to know, but refused to tell the blonde princess because they weren't… speaking anymore.

Apple hesitated for a moment before getting up to move towards Briar, a half-baked plan of what to say, perhaps another attempt at an apology of some sort, forming in her mind.

Immediately everyone's phones began beeping indicating a mass urgent message had been sent, Apple halted in her tracks.

"This is it." Dexter breathed taking out his own phone as Apple did hers.

The scene first shown was that of a poisoned landscape underneath a curse-filled sky, the identity of the blindfolded girl standing between Lizzie and Faybelle didn't register at first in Apple's brain.

Raven's once pale skin now sported a healthy tan and was decorated in odd earth-toned tattoo designs that covered the girl's lower arms, and snaked up to her outer shoulders to frame her collared neck and tapering out just in front of the witch's ears, her thick dark hair looked more soft and voluptuous than what Apple had seen before and it was clipped back unusually, or at least in a manner Apple had never seen in Ever After, three flat strips of decorated silver and bronze clips had pulled together the mass of hair in several places before having being draped over Raven's left shoulder, most of her hair however was hidden from view thanks to an embroidered linin white veil with a dark rose lacy trim having been secured to her head, and most unusually of all the witch was wearing white.

The white dress which had caught Apple's immediate attention had thick shoulder straps that hung off the shoulders leaving the top of the joints bare, it fitted to Raven's torso like a glove and softly expanded out at the waist like a bell, more rose colored designs had been embroidered sparingly in pleasing lines here and there across the skirt and led up to the bust where some daring (or at least daring by Ever After standards) moderate amount of cleavage was showing from a sharp V cut into the top bust part of the dress. Apple became increasingly alarmed when her widening eyes caught sight of the silvery chain that threaded through a metal loop attached to the collar at Raven's throat, connecting the two decorative bracelet cuffs on each of the witch's wrists, and Apple feared for several frightening seconds that the black lines that crisscrossed Raven's unpainted lips was _actually_ thread and that they had gone as far as to sew the witch's lips together and-!

But then Raven parted her lips to begin speaking, showing that the lines were just dramatic makeup of some sort, much to Apple's relief. The words flowing out of Raven's mouth were quiet and foreign, the tone behind the spell being used was familiar, Apple was certain that she had heard something similar from Raven before but couldn't place exactly where…

Sunlight began to fade in, shining down upon the three figures shown, the trees around them suddenly began growing leaves and bursting out flowers and fruit, the once barren ground shooting up healthy plants and grass, the camera turns towards the sky where the last of the Evil Queen's curse is fading gently away and there are people that can be seen, far below the steep hill that Raven and the others are standing on, running out, cheering and shouting and laughing as they embrace the sun that has not been seen for years and then the camera turns back to Raven and-

…And Faybelle is… kissing Raven! On the mouth! For everyone to see and Raven isn't fighting the fairy off! She's kissing back and-

Apple wants to do something, she wants to jump through her phone and rip Faybelle away from Raven with an ugly snarl so feral that it has no right to be ripped free from a fair maiden such as she, the princess is dimly aware that a growl does leave her throat, unbidden, by accident, but there is nothing that she can do and she can hear Dexter's sounds of distress and Briar and several other Rebels are cheering and wolf-whistling to something that sounds an awful lot like; "Hex yeah! I told you peeps that she'd kiss her! Fork over the dough to those who won the bet, and lets all head over to Hex's Kitchen later for a spell-celebration that these two nerds finally made things official!" But Apple isn't paying much attention because Raven is letting herself be held closely by Faybelle and the two haven't stopped kissing and there is nothing Apple can do about it and she feels really funny in a bad sort of way and she can't breath-

And Apple is running, her phone dropped and laying broken back at the castleteria but she hardly cares or notices as she flies through the halls, out the school doors and into the woods, reaching a deserted section with a familiar white gazebo that she had run off to on Legacy Day and-

Apple wonders vaguely who had put the floor so close to her face before blacking out completely.

XXX

In the end they had decided to invite Lizzie Hearts along to further authenticate Raven's campaign to free all the worlds from the former Evil Queen's curse, which had been great as far as Raven was concerned because that meant that Maddie and her other friends from Wonderland were allowed to come along, it felt a little like old times, going on a new adventure with her friends…

It would have been better if she could see the newly un-cursed scenery better through the lacy strip of ceremonial cloth wrapped around her head in order to cover her eyes. She can still see well enough, however there is a fuzzy white outline from the fabric that forces the witch to squint in order to see past it and to the area around her.

"Why is Raven blindfolded again?" Bunny softly inquires, eyeing the way that both Faybelle and Lizzie have taken support of the witch's two arms so that Raven can carefully maneuver herself in a dignified manner and not stumble as they moved away from the astonished cheering crowds and through the nearly empty tree-lined paths, the once blackened bare branches rapidly growing new leaves and colorful edible fruit as they passed, almost as if the plants were waking up from a bad dream.

"Symbolism is very important to convey other people's assumptions of Raven's relationship with me and my family." Faybelle explains.

"The Thorn Clan still needs to be viewed as completely evil in order to be taken seriously from other fairytale countries." Raven clarified further. "Thus is the reason for the sight-cloth, the painted stitching on my lips, and the ceremonial Wonderlandian shackles and collar." The witch held up her wrists, which were adorned with silver cuffs that stretched from under the beginnings of the palm and up her mid-forearm intricately laid with thin, swirly bronze designs, a long thin silver chain connected the two cuffs, threaded loosely from the bronze loop attached to the white leather collar adorning the witch's slender neck and effectively holding the chain up and away from causing too much issues with getting in the way. "Thank you for going to the trouble for sizing a pair for me Lizzie."

Lizzie smiled kindly. "This is important for Wonderland as well as for you guys! Improving relations between Wonderland, your father's newly combined kingdoms, and the Thorn territories will provide us all with valuable trade relations for items that we either can't get anywhere else or is currently too difficult to bargain for a better price for goods already imported to us. As well as the added bonus of the good press we'll get for being your second sponsors for your campaign to right your mother's wrongs."

"I can't believe that we finally get to have this chance to fix everything!" Raven laughed joyously sounding breathless. "It's like waking up from a bad dream!"

"That it does dearest." Faybelle allowed herself a besotted smile before kissing her wife's temple. "That it does."

"Niggie says dat de Headmaster has called fer emergency transpert 't Wick through da mirrors!" Nog warns as he and Tog hop from tree to tree with surprising dexterity for two creatures born from stone.

"Which means that he'll be here in less than a half-an-hour." Alistair calculated. "Looks like sight-seeing will have to wait for another day."

"It is only going to get more difficult to un-curse places this close to Ever After without the Headmaster and the Snow White brigade coming down upon our heads." Kitty grumbled, popping in and out of existence with increasing speed as they went along.

"Well hopefully the appeal of dragging me back to Ever After will wear off by the time we get to the places this close to where they are again." Raven added hopefully.

"There is always hope!" Maddie assured with confidence and a giggle. "The strongest will is always mightier than the effort it takes to go about fruitless things and strings and all those kind of things!"

XXX

The press release the Thorn Clan sent out immediately after the news clip had been broadcasted, calmly, almost emotionlessly (in Apple's mind) explaining how the contract that Raven had made with the Thorn family ensured Faybelle's legitimacy to have two villain rolls through marriage, how Raven had decided for the benefit of both personal and foreign relationship interests (one of these interests apparently was Raven gaining enough influence in Faybelle's family to convince them to help her begin un-cursing various realms from the Evil Queen's hold) to extend her marriage to Faybelle for the foreseeable future and to begin a more hands on education for her new title as the Lady Good King in one of the many Thorn family territories.

Apple's father had personally saw to it that Apple was retrieved to stay at her childhood home for the weekend, for that Apple was grateful to the man, she didn't really feel as though she could pull through the weekend staring at the empty side of the dorm where Raven's things once resided, she just didn't know how to compute the situation, it all was so… foreign to her, every time she tried to sort through everything, her mind just… blanked out on her.

Raven, married to Faybelle, Raven was the Lady Good King and Faybelle was the… Evil Fairy? Evil Queen? And Apple had been Snow White… it made sense in a twisted sort of way, Raven always identified more with her father and all the key main players were there-

Except for Daring! Eurgh. Why did she keep just forgetting about him?

Well _Darling_ was the one to wake her up-

But that was CPR!

CPR _is_ the kiss of life.

But it didn't make sense! This wasn't how the story was supposed to go! The Evil Queen had given her mother the perfect fairytale, and Raven had the potential to be just as perfect as her own mother so-…

But Raven didn't want to be like her mother. Raven's mother was evil in ways that were worse than bad. Apple didn't want Raven to be that kind of evil, even if Raven's destiny was to have a bad ending that gave no excuse to become that kind of evil!

Apple knew that her desire to have the same perfect story as her mother did had gotten out of hand, and okay, maybe she did deserve Raven pushing Apple away and not even trying to contact Apple ever again… but Apple had been desperate!

She had wanted to keep Raven… and yet she had also wanted Raven to change. It was wrong and she should have known better-… _should_ have appreciated what she had with Raven as everything had once been. She liked Raven as she was and she probably shouldn't have been so… hasty that the witch had somehow gained something close to fair princess status amongst their peers, after all it wasn't that surprising considering Raven's active roll as the Rebellious leader…

Why had Apple freaked out so much over a couple of points in a popularity poll again? That didn't sound like her, to be all freaked out about something like that when she could have just as easily been simply proud of Raven and that all of her hard work had put her up to Apple's level and the two could have shared the spotlight just like two best friends should do.

Apple wanted to talk it over with her mother; the older woman had been coaching Apple to become the fairest princess in school her entire life! Surely the woman would know where Apple went wrong, sure, her mom had been upset about the polls but that didn't mean that Apple couldn't have found a more reasonable solution to the dilemma…

Her mother just wanted what was best for her, like any good mother would.

But her mother had been in such a state ever since she had come home, even to the point where her father wisely stayed clear of the woman's way. Snow White was able to keep it together long enough to handle her duties with the usual grace and poise, however it soon became very clear that the older woman could not be as easily approached as Apple would have liked. The news of the nature of Raven's contract and the ironclad legalities behind it had snapped something in the older woman for not even Apple felt quite right approaching her at all with the tense air of seething indignation rolling off of Snow White in thick waves.

So Apple patiently waited until the last night of her stay at home before she braved slipping into her mother's private bedchamber, silently padding her way through the empty room, looking to see if perhaps she could speak at least a little bit to her mother about things.

"Mom?" Apple called softly looking around in confusion as she passed from the bedchamber to the private study. "Where is she at this time of night?" The princess asked herself in befuddlement.

Apple was tempted to turn on a light but her reaching hand stilled the moment she caught sight of the flickering light beneath the door leading to what once was her mother's private office. Muted voices of distress drifted up to Apple's ears as she drew closer.

Feeling slightly uneasy Apple tiptoed closer and silently, as quietly as possible Apple slowly cracked open the door to peer inside.

"How could all of our best laid plans just go so wrong?" Snow White sniffled into the unconscious Evil Queen's abdomen; the platform that the witch was laying on was low to the ground allowing the former maiden to lounge comfortably over the plush carpeted ground and the unconscious body, the whole room was filled with the flowering twisting thorny vines that customarily appeared in the Evil Fairy's curse, to protect the body of the unconscious maiden by viciously attacking invaders until her true prince came to save her, oddly enough the vines did not appear to bother her mother at all but Apple was too shocked by the woman's next words to really think much on the oddity of the pliant vines.

"You were so perfect, so commanding and evil… my perfect villain. How could someone as perfect as you birth a child who- who denies her destiny like that? Surely it is not your fault; you were always such a loving diligent mother to her. Must have been her father's influence." Snow White snorted in distain. "I never did see what you saw in him, quite the terrible influence on dear little Raven, on the both of you to be perfectly honest. I mean it was completely unexpected of you to just up and not only marry that goody-goody but to also stay with him as long as you did as well?"

Snow White shook her head in disgust. "I had been so worried that you had lost your true nature because of him, but you didn't, you just had to have a nudge or two to remind you of who- no, _what_ you really were to get you back to how things are supposed to be. Granted you did go a bit overboard but even then your extreme use of your evil powers was nothing short of perfect, just as I would expect from you. After all a perfect maiden needs her perfect villain to complete the story and you never failed to do so for me with utter excellence. If only Raven was the same way with my Apple, fairytales know that it would be difficult enough for Apple to have nearly as close to the perfect fairytale as you had provided for me, what with her having her father's hair and complexion and her needing glasses at the age of five… But Raven could have fixed all of that, if only she had been more like you. You always had a way to make any maiden, even the less than ideal ones, appear absolutely perfectly fair in any situation. I was so lucky to have you born to be my villain, I'm not sure how I'd like it if you had been anybody else's…"

Apple couldn't see her mother's face (she saw even less of the room due to her reeling back from the shock of hurt her mother's words caused to shoot through her system, she had heard all of this stuff about her imperfect physical appearance from the woman before but it hurt worse this time for some reason), the way that Snow White inhaled shakily and stroked her fingers over the sleeping witch's face and hair seemed… not quite right… less than innocent somehow.

"Why were we unable to have children that could match us in perfection? Why-… why has nothing seemed to have fit quite right after our story had finished?" The queen's voice was small, mournful. "You almost turning good, you staying with that… _man_ , my _daughter_ born to look more like some _Princess Charming_ instead of a Snow White, your daughter turning out to be so disappointingly good that she turns her back on her cursed fate despite her duties to her betters, my prince and I not being…"

Snow White hesitates as if afraid of voicing her thoughts, meanwhile Apple is bewildered by the comment about believing Raven to be less of a Queen than Apple would become and is wondering why her mother would insinuate something so… demeaning towards Raven when her mother's next words nearly stop Apple's heart cold.

"It's never been the same kind of love that was promised to me, he is my prince so I dare not question the legitimacy of it, nor do I long for any other man, I did my duty, birthing Apple was enough for me in that department, I never held the desire to try for anymore with him, he does his duties, I do mine, our relationship is pure in the fact that we do not share a bed, do not need to share a bed since Apple is here to succeed us, he has as any Charming Prince and King should, provided everything that is supposed to make a Snow White happy…"

The woman hesitates, taking the Evil Queen's hand in hers, the vines moving obediently out of the way at the movement and pressing the witch's limp fingers to her cheek in the same manner more appropriate for a loved one, not and enemy, to do. "The love that is described in the books, classes, family stories… it is not the same for me, and now I fear that the love I had been promised since I was old enough to understand has… never been there at all. He preforms his duties well, but he is no longer charming, and I find him positively boring and plain, again if I did not already know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he and I were destined to be together then I wouldn't be putting up with his presence at all… but he was the one part of my happily ever after that was… not perfect. It is utterly pathetic that you, a villain, held more zeal and talent and perfection than my intended prince… but then again maybe that is where all of Apple's faults came from, it wasn't from me I know that for sure, and I know that Raven could have been fantastic as the next Evil Queen… if only you had not grown a soft spot for your ex-husband and allowed him close enough to poison her mind with his good ways."

"Things would have been perfect if only we had not been paired off with such imperfect matches that ruined our children from ever achieving our level…" Snow White continued on but Apple had enough by then, dashing out of her mother's chambers witch stinging hot tears clouding her vision and clogging her nose as she raced blindly through the darkened halls of the castle.

XXX

"So that's the spell your mother used on queen Snow White." Faybelle's brows rose to her bangs as she glanced through the pages of an old tome of ancient Queen family spells that Raven had requested her father send over for her to give to Faybelle, seeing as how the fairy held more use for books and relics like these than Raven ever would. "It's simpler than the spell I had to use on Apple."

Raven looked up from reviewing a scrolled report that she was keeping hanging in the air with her magic (her skill over her powers was slowly, but surely getting better); the witch lay upon a light blue fainting couch clad only in a white, silky robe which was so loosely tied together that the witch was half falling out of it, between learning how to deal with the heat of the dessert and wearing the native fashions which showed more skin than what would ever be shown in Ever After Raven was becoming less and less shy about showing so much of her body by the day. "That's because the spell that my family traditionally used on Snow Whites was designed for a… more broader spectrum of potential Prince Charming matches… have you ever heard of the theory of the nature of true love by the wizard philosopher Te Amo Da Vinnici?"

Faybelle looked up from her desk and nodded at the witch. "You mean the guy who theorized like five hundred years ago that it is possible for fairytale characters to possibly find more than one viable love match or people that they could fall in love with suitors outside of the story guidelines if an actual true love match could not be found, and that given enough time the genuine _true love_ matches of one generation may not coincide with what the story demands happen? Wasn't he laughed out of the academic world for his rebellious ideas?"

"He was." Raven nodded. "But the facts that backed up his research did hold more than enough merit that my family took precautions to ensure that every Snow White generation would get a prince just as the story prescribed, we are all required to learn the original spell in school, but for the sake of ensuring that no hiccups arise, like if the favored prince had turned out not to be our princess's true love, we kind of… make certain that the _expected_ prince to marry Snow White appears to be the princess's one true love."

"Because not all stories have the luxury of waiting a hundred years for a true love match to find their way into them." Faybelle translated with another nod. "Makes sense, imagine the embarrassment of all those Prince Charmings if they all ended up like Daring."

"Precisely." Raven rolled her eyes. "Incredibly improper that it would be if the Prince Charming of the story had turned out to be a _girl_."

"Or not a Charming at all if the theory is true." Faybelle snickered. "Man I love being born a villain, I have no clue how maidens do it."

"Oh I don't know…" Raven smiled coyly at the other. "I feel pretty satisfied with my situation."

"You seem to have been born more of a King than a princess or a Queen." Faybelle points out. "That might have something to do with it."

"Perhaps…" Raven allowed setting her scroll aside and making her way to the fairy, a definite seductive saunter to her step. "There is something to be said about defying expectations."

"Indeed there is." Faybelle eyed the Witch's visible skin appreciatively. "I certainly would have never expected the welcome surprise I received back when I had agreed to this little arrangement."

"Nor I." Raven agreed. "It seems as though all is being worked out for the better on it's own thus far, and I quite like it here it's definitely beginning to feel like home the more days that go by."

"That's good 'cause I want you to stay." Faybelle told her fearlessly, happily.

"Will you be coming to bed soon?" The witch asked, placing a gentle hand to the other's shoulder.

Faybelle smirked cheekily. "Well when you ask me like that…" The fairy got up and allowed herself to be led away.

XXX

Apple has tried letters, petitions, begging the Rebels, begging the Wonderlandians, She has tried everything in her power as a fair princess to get somebody, anybody, to help her, if not to get Raven back to Ever After then to at least let Apple get into contact with her! Let Raven know that Apple regretted the whole catastrophe that had been he Dragon Games and that she had learned her lesson and was oh so, so sorry about everything. An apology that she had desired to convey to Raven months ago but had been oh so rudely prevented and now…

What was going on? That kiss between Raven Faybelle-… how did that happen? When had that development happen? Apple didn't know that Raven was into girls, and even more so why Faybelle of all people? Was… was Raven in love with her or something.

It was just so utterly confusing and such an… alien concept, Apple could barely process it. She felt weak and… angry for some reason, not at Raven, but at Faybelle, definitely at Faybelle, first the fairy steals Raven's story then kidnaps the witch and now… this?

What was going on? She was being left intentionally out of the loop and it was driving her crazy!

She really had to get in touch with Raven, somehow, there had to be a way, this whole situation of not knowing anything was too much.

"Maybe it wasn't Raven at all, maybe it was some sort of illusion to keep us from getting Raven back from their evil clutches." Dexter mumbles as he paces the plush carpet of the student lounge.

"The Evil Queen's magic is blood-bound Dexter." Cupid informs gently. "Aside from the Evil Queen herself only Raven can un-curse everything."

"So… then maybe Raven has been there so long that she is feeling sympathy for her captors." Dexter tries again, twittling with his fingers, looking panicked.

"You mean like she's suffering from Stockholm syndrome?" Cupid blinks.

"Yeah! …Whatever a Stockholm is… it sounds about right!" Dexter nods with enough force to jar his glasses slightly from his face.

Apple shook her head. "If Raven were prone to Stockholm syndrome she'd have given up her Rebel cause long before now by just being my roommate." She informed the boy tiredly.

"Yes but she chose to be your roommate." Dexter pointed out.

"No she didn't." Apple's voice was heavy with memories and guilt. "She didn't get a choice with her roommates… it was all decided for her… against her will. She had wanted to room with Maddie, her best friend and the person she trusted the most, not me." _The person she trusted the least and for good reason_ , Apple thinks but does not say out loud.

Apple swallows the sharp lump in her throat. "She did however choose to sign that contract, and knowing Raven she had known exactly what she was signing and the consequences thereof. She's really good at questioning all aspects of things before she decides to sign anything… as we all well know by now."

"So she just… chose to be Faybelle's trophy wife is what you're saying?" Dexter demands with a hint of hysteria. "But she's Faybelle! Faybelle is… she's evil! And super crazy! There is just no way this whole thing is on the up and up, it just doesn't make any sense!"

Cupid holds her hands up peacefully. "Dexter, Raven is fully capable of making her own choices and love does not always make sense. I would have seen something off if-"

"Whose side are you on?" Dexter demands making Cupid flinch back with a brief flash of hurt crossing her features before her face seems to shut down into an emotionless mask.

Dexter winces immediately looking guilty. "Sorry Cupid, it's just… been a-a trying few months. I-I mean it's not everyday that a guy doesn't hear from his girlfriend-"

"Ex-girlfriend." Blondie reminds him pointedly, because everyone at school had known that Raven had broken up with the boy long before the Dragon Games had started.

"Yes well, my point is that I haven't heard a word from her in weeks and now to just suddenly find out that she's gotten married to another girl? I mean we're all still in high school!" Dexter gestured frantically.

Apple and Blondie sighed, both casting Daring, who is sitting meekly in his plush chair all by himself, looks that demand the boy go and comfort his brother or at least say something!

Daring takes a good long while before he finally interprets what the two girls are trying to wordlessly tell him, it takes several gestures and one nasty glare from Apple before the boy seems to take the hint.

"Well little bro, that news release did say that Raven had decided to stay with Faybelle, instead of divorcing her at the first opportunity for both personal and official reasons. So at least she has a good reason for staying." Daring offered making all of the women in the room wince and glare at him. "What?"

"So you're saying that Raven's campaign to un-curse all of the worlds is being allowed in exchange for- f-for her selling her body to Faybelle?" Dexter shrieked drawing the rest of the room's attention to them.

"Well now that you put it like that it does make sense doesn't it?" Daring scratched his neck, looking embarrassed by the gawking stares of the other students around him thus being unable to see Apple rear back to give a vicious kick to his shin until it was too late.

" _OWIE!_ Why are you being so mean to me?" Daring whimpered while holding his sore leg.

"What Daring meant to say Dexter is that Raven is a strong-willed witch with a mind of her own, whatever has convinced to stay Faybelle's bride, she's got very good reason for it, and we all know that Raven very stubborn and therefore there is probably more going on than what we currently know." Apple speaks reasonably, even though she is silently freaking out on the inside too. Somebody around here obviously has to be the adult, and it looks like that has to be her today.

"But how can we know for certain?" Dexter pleads. "How can we get into contact with Raven and have her answer all of our questions?"

"Well Briar and Duchess seem to know more about all of this than most people maybe you should ask her?" Apple suggested, because even though she and Briar weren't speaking the other princess was still fond of Dexter.

"I tried that, she just said that Raven was happy and healthy and that I should stop referring to my ex-girlfriend as my girlfriend." Dexter sighed.

"How about Ashlynn? Hunter?" Apple tried again.

"They said that it was her life and that she could do whatever she wants now." Dexter mumbles. "And that the reason why Raven hasn't tried to contact me might be because I keep referring her as my current girlfriend… I'm getting better at that I swear!"

"The Wonderlandians?" Apple asked faintly.

"All switched to riddlish when I asked." Dexter looked down, defeated.

"…There is one route that I haven't tried because it would be rude (maybe a little bit illegal) and a very bad idea…" Dexter fidgeted.

"And what would that be?" Apple asked.

"To hack into Faybelle's phone and ask her what is going on." Dexter replied.

"Do it." Apple ordered, making the entire group look up at her in alarm.


	7. Chapter 7

Faybelle breathed in a happy sigh and stretched lazily, enjoying the feel of the linin sheets and the solid press of Raven's nude form against hers for a moment before lazily settling down, not daring to open her eyes just yet, no, not yet, not quite yet.

Faybelle kept her eyes closed as she took in her surroundings based solely on very limited queues, somewhere, in the very far back of her mind the fairy knew that they were currently residing in the guest wing in the palace belonging to the very young sultan of the East Desert Maplands and that they were quite welcomed to stay for further talks with the boy-ruler's advisors on trade between the Thorn Territories, the Good King's lands, Wonderland, and this dessert kingdom after Raven had freed them from the curse that had blighted their sky and that if they were successful here then the northern forested allies of this kingdom might jump in as well and thus gifting Raven's homelands with the luxury of weaning off of their dependence on the imports of goods from Ever After, thus giving them more freedom for-

Faybelle sharply dragged her thoughts away from business, relaxing back into the fog of half-sleep and faint arousal, and she made sure to keep her eyes closed, focusing on the feel of Raven's head tucked trustingly under Faybelle's chin and her soft body laying partially on the fairy the witch's skin feeling particularly silky as it slides over Faybelle's skin whenever Raven shifts minutely in her sleep, the smell of fragrant soap and beeswax with just a hint of Raven's natural musk underneath, the taste of the warming early morning desert air flowing over the sensitive sensory glands in the fairy's pallet, the sound of the witch's drowsy breathing in the silence of the morning… really it is quite easy for Faybelle to forget about the outside world when it is like this, half-asleep and having badly poetically romantic thoughts, she and Raven could be practically anywhere as far as the fairy's imagination was concerned.

And oh, how pathetic it was that the fairy's control had slipped enough that Faybelle's hands began moving without permission over the other's smooth expanse of soft skin, remembering a mere few hours ago when the witch had lain pliant and bare beneath the fairy arching her back and having the uncontrolled sounds of her approval rip from her bared delicate throat as Faybelle had pressed her magic-tipped fingers down the vulnerable expanse of one captured leg as the fairy kissed the decorated designs adorning a shyly curled foot-

 ** _"We're in."_** Hissed a strange voice somewhere up and to the left of Faybelle's head.

Faybelle's eyes flew open, immediately on alert as she scanned the sunrise-lit room around her, mouth parted slightly, tasting the air for the stench of an intruder, long-pointed ears perked up for the minutest of sounds, magically sending out discrete feelers, sensing, sensing...

 ** _"Can you see anything? I can't see anything!"_**

 ** _"I do not think that this was such a good idea…"_**

 ** _"It's just dark wherever they are, let me turn on the phone's flashlight…"_**

Nothing. Well nothing in the room at least, the only thing that Faybelle could discern was that the faint, tinny voices were coming from her phone.

Had one of the palace cats snuck in and accidentally foot-dialed a strange number again (and hadn't that been amusing with Raven and the young sultan laughing merrily as Faybelle had attempted to persuade the hopelessly confused Neverland privateer to try the joys and thrills of boat surfing since there seemed to be an awful lack of pirates in the surfing world despite the irony of where the seafaring folk worked most of their lives)?

 ** _"Come on, Apple, Dexter, think rationally here, Faybelle isn't going to tell you anything!"_** Ah that was Cupid's voice, definitely Cupid's voice? **_"Ooh… fine! Don't listen to me. Come on Blondie I just cannot be apart of this, and I'm not comfortable with you being apart of this either!"_**

Why was Cupid's voice coming from the phone? Faybelle wondered blinking wearily at the device in sleep-muddled confusion. What? Just… what?

 ** _"Maybe not Cupid but with Raven having her phone disconnected this is the only chance that we have to perhaps talk to Raven face to face- Cupid? Daring where did Cupid and Blondie go?"_**

 ** _"…I am not comfortable with this-"_**

 ** _"-I just about got the flashlight."_**

Faybelle knew that picking up her phone was a bad idea, a stupid amateur idea, and Faybelle strained to use her rational brain instead of relying solely on her primal instincts which were so flooded with adrenaline and the internal alarms blaring on about unseen intruders so, so near to her still sleeping mate and the last of Faybelle's control was momentarily distracted by the vague odd thought that pointed out that Raven's womb was prime for the growth of new life by Faybelle's genes and that possibility, her claim on her mate, had to be defended with nothing but the utmost savage of responses-

The light from her phone flared to life making Raven groan in sleepy complaint, the last of Faybelle's restraints slipping just enough to leave her reflexes unchecked, protectively covering the side of Raven's head with her right hand and arm in the instant she ripped the phone from the nightstand to properly glare at the shocked faces on the tiny screen.

Faybelle knew that she was currently a sight to behold, she could feel her lips curled back completely to show off her small yet very sharp rows of fanged teeth, designed by evolution for ripping apart the flesh of still struggling large prey and the scaled outer armor of native edible plants and fish, her jaw slightly open on instinct in order to taste the fear carried through the nonexistent air between there and here, her dark pupils blown wide to cover the full capacity of her narrowed eyes, second eyelid blinking in sideways in response to the bright light shining in them, hair wild and messed, pointed ears rudely flaring away from her skull in challenge, and surely her black lipstick (which she had neglected to wipe off before Raven had affectionately pounced on her last night) was no doubt accenting the gruesome red of her mouth right now.

Both Dexter and Apple (who was wearing a pair of apple red glasses, since when did Apple need glasses?) had managed not to shout as they both nearly jumped out of their skin at the sudden image of Faybelle coming on screen all teeth and looking so thoroughly hostile and different than the politely composed look of the fairytale fairy where revealing such stark physical differences between the different species was just not done traditionally and in polite society.

In contrast to the two mentioned humans, behind them stood Daring, muttering to himself and practicing pouting prettily into his little hand mirror, completely oblivious to the world around him. Which was rather typical of him come to think of it.

Something was odd with the image though… Faybelle was staring down at the trio and she had a rather large view of the school's tech room. Did they put her on that big mirror screen that took up the entire wall?

Dexter remained frozen in fear in the long moments that ticked by but Apple… bless her little soul, Apple actually found it in herself to glare back, her pretty painted red lips thinned into a disapproving line, gathering herself up to her full height and taking off her glasses in preparation for confrontation…

…Only for the princess to inhale sharply; staring intensely down at the corner of the screen with wide eyes and an outraged expression transforming over her face.

Faybelle snapped her mouth shut, still baring her teeth, and tilted her phone up to hide Raven's unconscious nude form (and good gods the sheet covering the two of them only came up to their waists which meant that a lot more of Raven and herself had been exposed than what was preferred!) but Apple had already seen all that she apparently needed to because the princess looked positively livid now, the princess's own teeth flashing in bared aggression as she took a breath to speak-.

-Only to be interrupted when Daring decided to look up from his mirror.

 ** _"Why have you two gone so quiet- EEEK! HOLY GODS OF HAIR WHAT IS THAT HORRID CREATURE?"_**

Faybelle nearly dropped her phone in indignation, a low hiss escaping her clenched teeth when Raven began to stir, accidently bumping Faybelle's side and causing the phone's camera to tilt downward once more.

 ** _"IT'S GOT RAVEN!"_** Daring's voice howled even as Faybelle used her magic to send the device sailing out the open balcony doors and into the night, startling several slumbering birds into squawks of alarm in the process.

So that was what Raven had meant by her being so worried all those months previous that somebody might try to hack her phone… Faybelle mused while turning her still contorted face away from the bleary-eyed and confused witch beside her.

"Faybelle? Wha- who was screaming just now?" Raven sat up and looked around in alarm.

"Crank call." Faybelle growled hiding her fearsome face under the sheets. "They started screaming when they saw my face."

"Your face?" Raven mumbled in confusion for a moment before realization dawned. "Oh! _Oh habibi_..." Raven cooed the foreign endearment sounding like dripping honey to the other's biased hearing and immediately the witch was trailing soothing kisses on Faybelle's shoulder and nuzzling the fairy's twitching ear. "Oh dearest beloved do not hide your face, I'm not going to scream and runaway from seeing something like this… rally I have little to no right considering my own evolutionary genetic makeup." The witch snorted at the thought.

It was considered highly uncultured and barbaric for a fairy to bear their teeth, show off their clawed feet, or second eyelids in mixed company outside of extreme circumstances, a slip of that much control was definitely an embarrassment especially for fairytale clans where every action was supposed to be meticulously on par with established etiquette at least, even in the most unexpected moments, and every deed (be it good or evil) done with methodical grace and complete professionalism.

Witches got off a little better; most of their evolutionary differences were too involuntary for them to properly hide them completely, if they weren't in a fairytale they tended not to care if their evolutionary differences from other species showed, there were exceptions of course, especially if one was currently in a human dominate area. It baffled Faybelle to no end as to why it was considered improper for a species that had evolved to be very nearly symbiotic with humans on a genetic level (bearing witchlings with a human often strengthened the genes and the powers of the new generation and humans who spent a lot of close time with witches tended to live far longer lifespans than the general norm) to show off the little differences that marked the fact that there was an entirely different species sitting next to that hapless human…

Faybelle peeked over her shoulder at her wife, feeling foolish for the immediate instinct to hide her lapse of control like she was a tiny child-grub who had been caught doing something improper.

In response Raven smiled softly, her reflective witch eyes shining eerily in the low light both igniting in a soft purple flame with a wink, losing control of powers to the point of showing off the glow of one's power or lighting up with no intention of preforming a spell was a rather embarrassing slip-up, and while using magic without showing the glow of one's powers (example: Baba Yaga) was completely acceptable the technique for such a thing took years to master. Raven's propensity to flare up if her emotions got the best of her had been just one more thing in a long list of frustrations and humiliating situations that she had to endure back at school.

And in the end Raven had been the one to suffer far worse embarrassments than Faybelle's current immature snarling possessively over the slumbering form of her wife to Apple hadn't she? What with every flicker of purple bringing harsh sneers and open jeering about the witch's heritage and race it was a wonder that Raven didn't end up simply walking away from it all or becoming a different sort of evil in sheer self-defense, Faybelle certainly knew that she would have had no patience for it all if their situations were reversed.

With a huff Faybelle let the cloth down from her face completely, the indignation she felt over somebody actually daring to hack her phone so early in the morning prevented her face from going back to normal but by the way Raven lovingly cupped Faybelle's cheek into her hand and began kissing the other's exposed teeth the fairy felt safe in assuming that the witch hardly minded.

"I'll tell you more about it later." Faybelle promised after she had relaxed enough to go back to looking more civilized and before Raven braved asking any questions. "Seriously I will! But right now I just need to either have you right here right now or wake Charlotte and Moss up so that I can bug on them for a while." The fairy stated mostly in warning, her blood warming at the instinct to stake her claim on her wife just after facing (however briefly) how close the princess had come to actually _speaking_ with Faybelle's wife, the fairy itching to trap her willing wife beneath her and proceed to do filthy, filthy things that would have Apple screeching all the way from Ever After if the princess ever knew what the fairy was doing to her precious former roommate, best friend, and whatever else Raven used to be to the preppy little twit before she had unceremoniously thrown Raven's trust and admiration for the _fairest of the all_ away-

"Hush now. I can wait a little while longer if you're going to be like this." Raven cooed kissing the hissing breath and re-exposed teeth of her wife with an innocent tenderness that contradicted the wonton way that the witch straddled the other's lap and brushed her bare form against Faybelle. "I do, however fully expect you to tell me what this is all about very soon though… I'd rather find out from you than on my own." The witch warned dryly when they broke apart, forcing Faybelle to distract the witch by slowly gliding her hands towards more distracting places-

"Oi cousin! Raven-in-law!" Faybelle's cousin Moss pounded on the door before unceremoniously, but carefully, walking in, making sure to keep one hand firmly over his eyes, regardless Raven yelps and dashes off of Faybelle in favor of covering herself up in a cocoon of bed sheets. "Charlotte's arguing with that phone you so kindly dropped into the garden a woke just about every bird in the immediate vicinity of her window up, which then in turn caused her to go and wake me up since the button that turns off the phone is apparently busted or something because we can't turn it off, that or the screaming people on the other end are somehow keeping us from turning it off and Charolette really wants to destroy the thing but I said that it's still your phone so she-"

"Alright, alright fine!" Faybelle growls as she throws her hands up. "I'll go with you and make those crank callers cry before incinerating my own damn phone! Happy?"

"It's close to five AM in the freaking morning and I've been yelled at now by three crazy angry women, does it sound like I'm happy?" Moss argued back.

"Should I come with?" Raven asks uncertainly, head peeking out cutely from her cloth shell. "This is starting to sound rather more serious than a crank call. Moss I'm so sorry for the trouble."

"Thank you!" Moss states sweetly. "At least _somebody_ is being nice to me so early in this forsaken hour of the day!"

"Why don't you get some sleep dearest, I'll handle this and then we can both talk seriously about it later when it would be a more appropriate time to address the issue. You can still come if you want but…" Faybelle hesitates while putting on her robe, a spark of paranoia at the knowledge of just how weak Raven's will could get in the face of a teary-eyed Apple (it was a testament to how much Raven believed in freeing herself from her former cursed destiny and how she had been able to stand up to the princess who held so much power over the witch still).

Thankfully Raven sighed and nodded at the idea of staying. "I must admit that as much as greeting the sunrise does sound romantic in theory, I'm not nearly enough of a morning person to appreciate it without proper motivation…" She trails off and sighs despairingly at the loss of the previous mood of the room as she eyed the other girl with muted heat. "And I am incredibly curious about what it is that you obviously won't tell me." A disapproving look this time. "However I'm sure that we will be just fine with staying here, sleeping out the rest of our allotted recommended time for night rest until it's time to wake up at a more appropriate time."

"We?" Faybelle asks confused.

"She means me." Moss interprets, throwing Raven her robe before jumping into the large bed. "Which is kind of her because I'm dead on my feet and I'd much rather risk gossiping about what you and Charlotte are up to than have to deal with a bunch of cranky people so early in the morning." The male fairy grins cheekily waving dark-skinned fingers in his cousin's direction. "Tootles cousin dearest we've got some sleep and friendship-gossip-time to catch up on!"

"Moss you're such a _girl_." Faybelle shakes her head fondly at the boy.

"And I look damn good in a dress too, besides, I'm too pretty to be just a boy." Moss bats his eyelashes, which causes Raven to snort in laughter.

"Yeah, yeah." Faybelle smiles slightly before heading out of the room.

XXX

It's a lucky thing that their little drama hasn't attracted very much attention from the rest of the palace, embarrassing scenes where one of the visiting party was exchanging rather harsh words with a rather very surprisingly caustically swearing Ever After princess over the phone isn't exactly the right impression that Faybelle would like to impart to their kind hosts… however intriguing the resulting situation looks, Faybelle mused from a darkened corner.

"Just because your good at talkin' around in circles honey does not mean that you can simply change how things really are!" Charlotte snaps with a hiss, still unaware of Faybelle's presence. "It only makes you look stubborn and far too dumb to live if you can't even adapt your damn arguments to fit with the bloody truth!"

 ** _"And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"_** Apple growls, her voice sounding tinny from the cracked phone (really how was that thing still working?).

"Raven's married you ninny of course she and my cousin are going to be knocking boots! There is nothing wrong or abnormal about it and no matter how much you argue otherwise this fact is not going to freaking change!" Charlotte gritted her teeth (not as sharply needle-like as a full-blooded fairy's but the glowing witch's eyes more than made up for any loss in intimidation) and Faybelle was impressed to see an actual _vein_ becoming visible on the side of Charlotte's head.

 ** _"Well it is if there is a chance that Raven is doing all of this just so that she can undo what her mother did!"_** Apple bit back, challenging the other. **_"I know Raven and she'd never stoop as low as to knock boots with anyone while she was still of high school age! Raven is perfect and a proper princess not some… uncouth floozy! She'd never do something like that before her real marriage! She just wouldn't! Let alone not to another girl!"_**

Faybelle rolled her eyes at Apple's impression of what Raven would and would not do, obviously the princess didn't know her supposed _best friend_ as well as she think she does because as long as they've been married Raven had never even for a second expressed any hint of being ashamed of her sexuality let alone that she had married another female, sure she had been more seductive and coy about it when they finally got around to breaking down that last barrier rather than anything resembling an uncouth floozy, Faybelle was the uncouth one in this relationship and damn proud of it! The fairy didn't even know what a floozy was so that was obviously pointlessly invalid argument, it wasn't like people still weren't married off at the ages of sixteen and up anyway!

"What real marriage?" Charlotte demanded. "Same-sex marriages are perfectly acceptable and you can't deny that young folk _still_ get married and have children while _attending high school_ in this day in age! Who were expecting Raven to be knocking boots with if not her own fucking wife?"

 ** _"The next future Good King!"_** Apple sniffed haughtily. **_"And that would be only after the story was finished and after they were married!"_**

Charlotte squinted at the princess as if she were a bug worthy to be squished beneath the witch's heel. "Raven was rebelling against her destiny remember? What if she didn't want to get married to a Good King, and I thought that _not all_ Evil Queens ended up marrying anybody if they didn't want to anyway."

 ** _"Er…"_** Apple sounded like she was caught off guard. **_"Th-that's not what I meant!"_**

"Then what did you mean?" Charlotte challenged.

 ** _"What does this "knocking boots"_** **_mean? And what has all of this to do with the monster that was holding Raven hostage earlier?"_** Faybelle can hear Daring's voice interrupt in the background, sounding oddly distraught for a boy who'd often rather worry himself over the state of his hair instead of actually being aware of other living beings as far as Faybelle had observed of the boy.

 ** _"That wasn't a monster Daring that was Faybelle."_** Apple grumbled as if she had encountered a bad smell. **_"Remember our biology classes? That is what a fairy looks like when they are being aggressive."_**

 ** _"What was she doing to Raven?"_** The boy sounded immediately suspicious. **_"And why were they both… er… without proper attire?"_**

"He means naked right?" Charlotte asked sounding bored. "My guess is that they were busy knocking boots or sleeping after a night of knocking boots given the time you called…" The witch trailed off while glancing out at the beginnings of the sunrise outside the window.

 ** _"She wasn't…"_** Daring hesitates. **_"Hurting Raven was she?"_** Daring asks uncertainly. **_"Is that what this knocking boots thing is? Some sort of… evil thing that happens when one evil villain takes hostage of another?"_**

Faybelle bit her lip to suppress her laughter even as her cousin rolled her eyes so hard it looked like she was going to stick that way.

"Gods! No! It's completely consensual!" Charlotte huffed, at the end of her rope. "Knocking boots is a polite slang term for having lots and lots of kinky-ass sex you ninny! And of course Faybelle is going to be irritable by a bunch of backwards-conservative fanatics calling up in the middle of the early morning! I'm irritable that you morons called too and I'm not even the one who has been rocking Raven's world with hot lesbian sex, let alone having any desire to want to contemplate whatever the hell it is that my cousin does to her that makes Raven shout loud enough in ecstasy to-"

 ** _"Please stop!"_** Dexter voice shouts thickly, like he'd been crying.

 ** _"Oh don't be so crude!"_** Apple admonishes the witch sharply, also sounding at the end of her rope.

"Then tell your shell-shocked tech-goon to hang up and to never call back again. 'Cause I may not like thinking about my cousin's sex life at all if I can help it, but I am not above using that very same topic to horrify your narrow little minds until you have no choice but to leave Raven alone." Charlotte threatened. "She's of the Thorn clan now okay? She's one of us now. She isn't ever going to come back to you guys after all the hell you put her through now that she has _us_ for her family and friends."

There was an overly protective note in Charlotte's voice, an irritation too, like a steel blade clashing with another, and it was true that Raven was part of the family now, the witch integrating herself to the point where she was one of them now, just as Faybelle was the future head of the family Raven was the one that they wanted to be Faybelle's wife and Lady King, the witch had proved herself worthy of such a status over the past months and would surely continue to grow into the role until they were both ready to take up the throne themselves.

Faybelle's blood warmed and her chest fluttered at the idea, it was hopelessly romantic from a fae's point of view, in the folktales that never made it into the book of legends (mostly because the original creators of the damn thing were such prudes when it came to stories that involved a fair bit of erotica and little to no human casting) where the sly fairies won in the end and the captive maiden willingly falls for her new fairy spouse and stays with the fairies for the rest of her days as the fair young queen (or Lady Good King in this instance).

 ** _"And what makes you so certain that you have the right to claim Raven like that huh?"_** Apple demands savagely. **_"How am I supposed to know that Faybelle isn't making Raven sell her body in exchange for doing right by the worlds for her mother's crimes? I may have made an unforgivable mistake but that does not mean that I'm just going to sit back and let Raven do this to herself! Or let you guys do this to her! What could you possibly give her that she'd want to actually stay with you guys instead of returning back home… or returning back to Ever After?"_** The princess trailed off sounding tired and heartbroken.

 _Tsk_. _The nerve of the little_ …

Faybelle was a fairytale villain; there were rules and appearances that had to be met to show to the public, appearing sly and evil was of the utmost importance.

But so was defending your wife from her manipulative ex, the one who had harmed her so much for so long…

It was perfectly acceptable to be evil and make a bratty little princess cry, better still if you can prove yourself to be both on the morally high ground along with being so completely evil to the point where you rub in the fact that you had taken the brat's plaything away forever.

Finally Faybelle deemed it a good time to come out of the shadows, snatching her cracked phone out of her startled cousin's grip, and facing the princess on the tiny screen.

There is an audible gasp as Daring flinches back as if afraid, Dexter glares through his sullen pout and the tears collecting in his eyes, and Apple looks ready to declare war by the way she sets her pretty little jaw.

Faybelle speaks before a single one of them can utter a word. "We provide her with the respect and freedom you and your mother have always worked to deny her, she provides us with prosperity through our marriage and the prospect of her honored title as the willingly captive Lady Good King giving my family, our lands, and my people more prestige and a better promise for stability. Lastly, is the fact that we have grown to love each other, that is the main reason she stays with me, she loves me, I love her, simple as that. And unlike you I will not use her love for me against her in order to harm her in the process of fulfilling my own selfish desires, unlike you I was able to recognize that Raven was everything I needed to try for my own happy ending to this story, and unlike you I am willing to provide Raven with what she needs to fulfill her dreams and have a happy life in the future! I am evil, I am a villain, and I am the bad guy in this story, the variation of Snow White where the rotten brat of a princess throws away two perfectly decent possibilities for her own happy ending because she was too arrogant and self-centered to see that the chance for a true happy ending did not lie in the arms of a Charming prince who was not the right match, but in the arms and heart of a lady-witch-prince who used to adore you so completely."

Faybelle sneered Interrupting Apple again when the princess took a breath to speak (one of the many benefits to arguing with fair maidens like Apple is that they have been trained not to interrupt anybody and _oh_ did Apple ever endeavor to deliver on her _perfect princess_ act). "But no, you couldn't have that, could you? Because Raven was not only a girl, she was a witch on top of that, you considered yourself her better instead of her equal just like your mother did with the former Evil Queen, everything had to be exactly like your mother's story didn't it? You and your mother only ever considered Raven and the former Evil Queen to be your stepping stones towards power, the more evil and depraved they seemed the more influence your mother would get over all the other kingdoms and stories. Your mother willingly threw her villain away as if she was nothing after the story was over and when the woman dared to end up with not only a happy life for herself but some serious respect amongst her peers, _good_ respect, and that was unacceptable wasn't it?"

Apple flinched but did not say anything to try to contradict Faybelle's words. _Interesting_ …

"That's why your mother pushed the former Evil Queen over the edge, taking advantage of her mental disorder to make the Queen family and the Queen kingdom seem utterly vial in an unacceptable manner, all for the sake of making your mother appear more pure and maiden-like thus gaining her more credibility as the most perfect maiden of them all."

 ** _"Enough!"_** Apple ordered her eyes hard as stone. **_"That has nothing to do with Raven. I'd never push her to suffer her mother's fate. I could have protected her from that."_**

"Oh! She doesn't deny it!" Faybelle smirked. "No, you weren't going to push Raven to be exactly like her mother… just enough to have a miserable friendless life so that she would have no choice but to come crawling back to you so that at the very least she could be kept as your exotic little pet am I right?"

 ** _"I was going to offer her protection as her friend!"_** Apple defended. **_"And besides that was before… before Raven wanted to create her own destiny…"_** Apple trailed off looking somewhat guilty.

Faybelle took note of the two Charming prince's surprised expressions.

"What's the matter Daring? Did your future bride not tell you about her plans in keeping Raven for herself for the rest of her life? Honestly should you really be all that surprised, after all once you marry Apple you won't be getting much say in anything, let alone be allowed have your presence overshadow that of queen and princess Snow White. You'll just have to content yourself in the background… just like the last Prince Charming before you."

 ** _"My daddy's role is nothing like that."_** Apple snapped.

"Then tell me when was the last time he actually got to speak at a public function, or the last time he actually got to make a public appearance?" Faybelle challenged.

Apple thought furiously for a moment before she cast Faybelle a bitter expression her clenched fists shaking with contained fury.

Daring's expression changed from confusion to horror as the full implications hit him, apparently even his dense little brain was able to sort out that as long as queen Snow White breathed, she'd never allow Daring any kind of hand in keeping the public adoration side of the job, not as long as Apple could be thrown into the spotlight in his place.

So... in other words (or lack thereof) Prince Charming hasn't been in the spotlight for a very long while. Faybelle translated with a hint of satisfaction.

"Face it princess there is no amount of pitiful crying or maidenly pleading that is going to make it all better for you. Not this time. Not even fairytales can automatically give you the power to control other people and the whim of their individual lives in fact… I'm pretty sure that the morals of a whole bunch of stories have proven just that over and over again-"

 ** _"I was worried that I'd never get the happily ever after that was expected of me!"_** Apple roared, actually _interrupting_ the fairy, much to everyone's surprise. **_"My mother was freaked about never coming around to the whole destiny thing and I wasn't- I never intended- …I never wanted to hurt Raven! I thought that I was helping her! It was a mistake, I know that now, but I want to at least get the chance to give her the apology that you had denied me on that day! Please just… I don't care if she never wants to speak with me ever again, she needs to at least hear my apology and come back! Ever After High needs her! …I need her… even if she never speaks to me again I still-…"_** The princess trails off. **_"I made one mistake! I'm sorry for it alright?"_**

"Says the princess who not only used to bully Raven constantly and in public in order to make Raven look and feel like a monster for just wanting to defend herself from you and your mother's demented schemes, set free a violent and mentally unstable criminal thus resulting in the injury of many and the endangerment of all the lives not only at the school but her own home kingdom, and to top it all off you actually get your story but you decide to go and reject it because it didn't match up to your standards." Faybelle pointed out irritably. "Neither I nor Raven care how sorry you are princess, you blew it. Sure I may be the evil villain but in Raven's eyes that's a hell of a lot better than a back-stabbing brat who wouldn't know the definition of loyalty or real love even if she did live with you for almost an entire year. Don't ever call back here again princess, your fair maiden act won't work for you this time."

And with that Faybelle incinerated the phone in a bright blue flame of magic.


	8. Chapter 8

A/n: Almost done with this one, I will be going back to hacking away at my other fic; A Marriage of Convenience after this is finished but I wanted to get this out of the way first.

I'm still a Rapple fan don't get me wrong, however the idea of Faybelle managing to snatch Raven away romantically both tickles me in a rather morbidly amusing sort of way and it satisfies this part of me that has grown exasperated over the way that Apple had been portrayed in the Dragon Games movie (not mentioning how everyone automatically forgiving Apple just because she's the supposed "good" princess and Snow White which really irritated me because no way that they'd be willing to do the same if it were Raven in their place). It's an interesting head-canon of mine that most of Apple's popularity and success along with her sanity is directly reliant on Raven being there to nudge her in the right direction and to act as Apple's shadowy counterpart that ends up improving her overall image with the populace because comparatively she seems purer than Raven.

I personally like the whole cheerful goth thing, it's cute, but why they keep having Raven wear clothing that alludes to the Evil Queen role instead of having her change it in the face of her defiance to the role baffles me, she doesn't have to stop the awesome goth vibe, I'd like to make that clear, but they could give her a new angle on the goth design that clearly screams I am Raven the Rebel Queen instead of the daughter to the Evil Queen…

Which makes me wonder does Ever After have a dress code that I haven't heard about (I ask as I speak out loud into the empty wilderness because it's been a long month and I've started talking to myself…)? I get Mattel wanting to keep everybody's clothing choices consistent but personally I want to see what Raven would look like wearing other colors aside from purple, or have her wear white, she'd rock wearing white I think.

What do you guys think?

XXX

"Faybelle? _Faybelle!_ Goddamnit what the hell happened?" Apple yelled to the big blank mirror on the wall.

"The… the connection has been cut…" Dexter pointed out meekly in the face of Apple's rage. Full blown, uninhibited, rage, not weeping tragically or picturesquely looking mournful like a princess should be acting in a situation like this, but instead actually looking… angry. Maidens weren't supposed to get this kind of angry, not to the point of swearing or raising their voice, _never_ to the point of raising their voice, it was almost enough to distract the boy from the subject matter of the call and the feeling of being kicked in the stomach as a result of it.

 _The two of you weren't even dating when the Evil Queen broke out of prison_. Dexter's brain sharply reminded him. _And Cupid said that less than a handful of dates do not make a relationship that would last forever after…_

It was odd in a disconnected sort of way, Dexter had expected himself to feel jealous and hurt over his ex-girlfriend moving on with just about the worst person ever… but in the face of Apple's mood, which was scaring him quite a bit to be perfectly honest, Dexter suddenly found himself unable to be righteously indignant at the fact that… well now that he thought about it he was acting rather embarrassingly moronic with this whole thing wasn't he? Aside from being genuinely concerned about what was really going on in Raven's life right now purely for the sake of the witch's wellbeing (because _Faybelle_? _Really_?), that was a legitimate, noble thing to be worried about and perfectly acceptable.

However… Dexter was beginning to wonder whether he should be concerned for Raven's wellbeing... on two fronts? No! No… he- he couldn't think that about Apple! Everybody loved Apple, she was the fairest of them all and she was trying to make up for one measly mistake-

Apple slams her fist down onto the table with a loud _bam_ , making everything on it shake slightly from the force behind it.

"Apple?" Daring tries his voice hesitant and unsure. Dexter finds himself leaning away from the princess out of pure terror at the thunderous expression on her face.

Apple twitches, though she continues to stare at the blank screen with unseeing eyes, her white teeth flash into view in a bared grimace as she silently thinks the conversation over.

"Did… she just say that… Raven was _in love_ with me?" Apple breathed her eyes bright with unidentified emotion.

Dexter's mind glitches as his mind involuntarily had to think back on Faybelle's words. Certainly the fairy's way of phrasing her interpretation of Apple and Raven's friendship was a bit… odd but…

The boy's eyes widened comically.

When Raven broke up with him she had made an obscure reference to it not being fair to the both of them to continue dating when what she felt for him was not at all as serious or anywhere the same level to what he felt for her… and how it was because they weren't on the same level that it was especially unfair and not worth working through due to the fact that Raven already had strong feelings for someone else… someone she dared not even try to get romantically involved with for reasons she refused to elaborate upon, and she was beginning to suspect that perhaps she should try to sort out her own emotions by herself instead of trying to move on by using someone else in an unfair manner.

At the time Dexter had been hurt that she had wanted to discontinue being his girlfriend and wanted to just go back to being his friend, and he had been more than a little jealous towards this unnamed individual that had already stolen Raven's heart so completely, however she had obviously been so terribly distraught and tearfully apologetic about the whole thing that Dexter couldn't bring himself to get mad at her, especially when she explained her situation and referenced the troubling circumstances that surrounded the whole thing.

He had agreed to go back to being friends and because she had said that he was a sweet boy and that she did find him rather charming in his own unique way that he sort of hoped… maybe if he was patient enough she might want to try things out again sometime? He could easily see that it hurt her to be in love with this other person who she had described as not only unattainable but might also grow hateful towards her if they ever found out that the daughter to the Evil Queen was so besotted with them… it broke his heart to see her like that, his own hurt feelings over his crush breaking up with him having taken a back seat in the face of the intense bittersweet agony Raven felt safe enough to show in his presence after he swore to keep her forbidden unrequited feelings for her mysterious love interest a complete secret.

And he had felt honored that she trusted him to keep that secret, the knowledge comforted him in those awkward moments she would kindly treat him with kit gloves periodically after he would accidentally slip up and refer to her as his girlfriend instead of just his friend, or ask her out on a date instead of asking her to hang out, the knowledge of her trust in him consoled him when he knew she would deliberately hide the more harsher aspects that being the Rebel leader had upon her life from him, distancing him from herself in the language that she used with others and with him so that he would not suffer any ill repercussions for simply being her friend, because her willingness to share with him little secrets here and there told him that she wasn't holding anything against him and that he hadn't messed things all up.

And it had all been going perfectly fine… until Faybelle snatched Raven away, and that there had been nothing but silence aside from the occasional quick assurance from a Rebel-in-the-know that all was well with the witch.

It had hurt and confused him as to why she never tried to contact him but…

If what Faybelle had said, if her words were to be taken into that context then perhaps… perhaps Raven's constant instinct to shelter him from the harsher realities of had not gone away even after everything that had happened during the Dragon Games.

Dexter could have kicked himself, as good Raven was at understanding and acting out human norms and customs in public she still held on tightly to her witch heritage and this measure of protection, to help keep the political peace between himself and Apple, his supposed future sister-in-law was precisely something that Raven the _witch_ would do. More than once he got to see extended moments where her body language and her mannerisms would change, and it was only in those moment where Dexter was reminded that Raven was not fully human, an eerie thought at the time since she did so well in pretending to be a human that it was startling to realize that Raven had been acting at all until she suddenly decided to stop.

Raven had said so herself that it was an indulgence for her to act her culture and appear like one of her own race, that she only kept up just enough to keep in practice but daren't attempt to push her luck too far lest she end up in trouble once again for being caught doing something that was outside the strict rules of the Evil Queen role and the unspoken rules for maidens of her caliber in general like perching up high in trees, practicing some sort of deep breathing underwater meditation and holding of breath outside of her dorm's bath (and that was only when she was certain that Apple wouldn't walk in and freak out about Raven looking like she had accidently drowned herself, despite Apple strictly forbidding the witch from doing that ever again after the first few times, Raven always worried that she'd lose the skill of adjusting her eyes to see underwater and the ability to hold her breath up to ten minutes), or even her magic flaring up in the wrong way.

Dexter had to admit secretly to himself that the alien way that Raven carried herself in the traditional witch way was alien enough to be spooky, but since it was Raven and since she had trusted him enough to act that way around him, he learned to adjust himself to it enough not to let her see just how baffled he got when she switched between the racial norms and because of this he had learned quite a lot of interesting facts.

Witches held maternal lines in high esteem, like exceptionally high, so if what most everything that Faybelle had stated was true then… that would mean that Apple's family matriarch and Apple herself had committed quite a hefty offense towards both Raven as the current matriarch of her family and the Evil Queen who was the forsaken matriarch, and that despite it all Raven was still loyal to Apple to a certain degree and she had still somehow managed to fall in love with Apple in a way that would not be considered… appropriate for a villain and it had all come to an ugly head during the Dragon Games.

So why not tell or contact Dexter after all was said and done? Because Raven had considered Apple's story complete and because of this Raven viewed Apple as his sister-in-law and the future matriarch of his family, which was a far bigger deal to her as a _witch_ than it would be to him as a _human_ , and because she held him in enough high esteem to call him one of her closer friends (…and perhaps to get him to finally realize that _no_ , she was _not_ going to be his girlfriend or go on a date with him _ever again_ ) she would see that the only mercifully polite thing to do was to cut off contact with him, and ask the Rebels to please keep the whole scope of the matter a secret from him and Daring (Darling being both a Rebel and a matriarchal warrior exempted her on traditional principles) specifically save for the occasional assurance that she was well and was keeping him out of the loop for a very good reason.

There was no concrete evidence and he usually had to open his mind more than he was used to and look at things sideways to even begin to understand most aspects of witch culture but maybe… just maybe…

He didn't know what his expression was or what it gave away but apparently it had been something that had caused his brother's jaw to drop to a shocked gape and Apple's bottom lip to quiver before the princess raced out of the room.

XXX

"You had been waiting a while to say all of that." Charlotte observed calmly.

"And I restrained myself from saying every petty little thing that I wanted to rub her pretty little face into." Faybelle sighed sweeping her arms outward. "I've grown up, Briar will surely be sarcastically proud of Raven for taking the time to train me so well."

Charlotte laughed. "Yeah well I'm sure you can find the time to be thankful for being domesticated when it is your turn to teach your and Raven's children how to behave and how to properly _mis_ behave."

Now it was Faybelle's turn to chuckle, her expression softening at the thought. "Now that's a pretty picture, I'm not sure if Raven would ever trust the kingdom of Ever After enough to send our children there for school, but if we did, no doubts that the school would hardly know what even hit them. …She'd make a great mother, I know she will."

"Are little nieces and nephews something that I should be looking forward to in the near future?" Charlotte asked teasingly only half-serious.

"Not the _near_ , near future but… maybe?" Faybelle shrugged making for the door with Charlotte in tow. "Maybe in a few years Raven and I will consider it."

The witch and fairy paused sharing an expression of panic as a thought occurred to them.

"Nobody breathes a word about this to my mother." Faybelle ordered looking haunted. "The last thing either Raven or I need is a wannabe grandmother hounding after us for heirs!"

"Agreed." Charlotte nodded. "Because if she doesn't get what she wants from you soon enough it'll be the rest of _us cousins_ that'll be in her sights."

XXX

"-And so, for security reasons, we ended up having to leave a day earlier than intended with an apology and a promise to the young sultan to come and visit for more talks at their fall harvest festival, although, ironically enough, Apple ended up doing us a favor in the end though because a few hours later who else shows up but the Headmaster!" Faybelle threw her hands up into the air, feet splashing agitatedly in the pool.

"I thought that he showed up over half a day later." Ginger pointed out as she sat beside Faybelle and Briar on the edge of one of the east garden's pools.

"Details, details." Faybelle waved her hand dismissively. "But the actual time the persistent bastard showed up is beside the point."

"Right, I'm gonna have a few words with Apple come Monday." Briar swore, her tone and her posture radiating contempt.

"While you do could one of you pass on a letter from Raven to Dexter?" Faybelle asked. "She's been trying to keep him out of all the bad feelings left between her and Apple but after what had happened she's worried that he might be dragged into something that would only end up hurting him in the end if he got too tangled into it all."

The fairy was met with two identical incredulous stares.

"Ehm, Faybelle are you all right with that?" Ginger asked tentatively. "I mean we all know that Raven regards the boy as one of her more trusted acquaintances but… um…"

"He's still pathetically mooning over her an' actin' like they never broke up an' Raven seems to be the only one who hasn't noticed." Briar finished bluntly.

"Yes but I'm the one she decided to stay with and three official dates hardly makes enough history for me to be at all concerned that boy can ever hold a single thread of a threat to my marriage… that and Raven keeps referring to him as almost being like her adopted human brother so…" The fairy chuckles to herself. "I pity him more than I am jealous of him, let him continue on with his harmless one-sided feelings and his heartbreak, he'll get over it eventually, besides it's Apple that I'm more concerned about, and I'm confident that I'm speaking for both Raven and myself in the fact that we are both sick of having to deal with Apple and her mother for this long! Something has to be done before we are both driven crazy!"

The three were silent for a moment idly watching as Raven resurfaced from her six minute dive at the other end of the pool and Duchess took the opportunity to spin over the surface of the water around the bobbing witch's head, the dancer lost inside a melody of song and dance inside her own mind.

"So what are you going to do?" Ginger asked.

"We haven't the foggiest of clues." Faybelle slumped a little.

XXX

"I feel a little guilty about this whole Apple business." Raven confessed tentatively as she and Faybelle perched on a outcropping of rock, sinewy twisted desert trees miraculously thriving in little bunches while clutching to the stone itself partially hiding the two from view.

Faybelle took a deep breath, knowing that this conversation was coming and dreading it completely. "I know you do but you have to keep in mind that it is for the best that you stay clear from interacting with her, you know how charming and maiden-like she can get and how her perfect princess persona will only make you feel worse. Even if it's for something that you had every justifiable right to do." The fairy began, hoping to word things so that there would not be a fight.

Raven nodded. "Yes she is a pretty good princess… on the outside at least. That's why I feel so guilty! I'm scared of her now and I just- …I don't want to have to deal with her at all now! Which is silly because what kind of person have I been reduced to being if I'm afraid of one little princess and in actuality shouldn't I be braver in all of this? I very well may have to face Apple someday and I had lived with the girl for long enough that shouldn't be letting my feelings of betrayal and former feelings of love hold me back from doing more about sending Apple a very clear message that it is over and that there is nothing to be negotiated or changed about how I'm living my own life right now!"

The witch winced looking away. "…I know what I should be doing. That I should be as brave as I once was. But the mere thought of anything that has to do with Apple or Ever After frightens me like nothing else I've ever experienced… which is ironic considering who my mother is…"

Faybelle blinked in shock. Well _this_ was certainly a different turn to where she had been expecting this conversation to go.

"…What she did to you and how unhealthy your relationship with her had been is not something that should be forgiven so easily… if at all. I'm not going to fault you for wanting to sever all ties to something so painful, especially since I'm not at all fond of Apple either for the moment to be honest."

Raven snorted. "That's putting it mildly not like you to be so polite."

"Well saying that Apple probably was dropped on her head more than once as a child and was told her mother's obscene fantasies about her and the former Evil Queen as bedtime stories hardly sounds like a polite thing to say to a lady." Faybelle batted her eyes at the witch.

Raven made an uncomfortable expression. "…Actually… Apple had managed to drop herself into a well when she was a little girl. And, yeah… Apple's mother did recount her obscene fantasies to her as bedtime stories." The witch revealed, feeling a little odd about confessing one of her former roommate's secrets but on the other hand… did Raven really owe Apple anything at this point? That ship and all of those responsibilities had been long gone the moment Apple had let her mother go free.

"What?" Faybelle asked blankly. "She fell down a _well_?"

"And couldn't get back up again." Raven confirmed. "She had only been down there for a little while but apparently it had been enough to convince her that she had to become the best Snow White at all costs because such a thing as real life because there was no way that her mother as a fairytale character and one who had gotten her happily ever after would ever have to deal with something as scary or as unpredictable. As far as Apple was- _is_ concerned, as long as everyone plays their part nothing unexpected will ever happen for the rest of her life, it'll all be perfect smiles and… all that other stuff, really I don't think that she dwelled too much in the possibilities of what it'd actually be like, just trusted the promises provided to her."

A horrified expression crossed Faybelle's face. " _Nothing unscripted would hap_ \- as in everything that Apple wanted or desired she'd _get_? Just like that?"

Raven grimaced. "Well… up until I came along on Legacy Day, and excluding the fact that Apple was born not looking like a Snow White at all, Apple's mother always seemed to get what she wanted when she ordered it to be done… I assume that's what Apple expected would happen to her because she kept going on about how everything would come into place if everyone would just follow the script."

"And this girl was supposed to be the future most _powerful_ fairytale queen out of all the stories?" Faybelle looked appalled. "I thought that she was _smart_ when it came to this stuff!"

"Apple _is_ smart, trust me she is very, _very smart_ , however she has always been more of a numbers and theories sort of smart, you know like a future mathematician sort of smart… but, obviously, she had never been very good with listening to things that were outside her worldview, she has unquestionable faith that becoming Snow White will automatically make her a good queen and that nothing will go without a hitch for her as long as everybody plays the part that they're supposed to."

"Which is basically how she interprets how the other fairytale characters should be acting." Faybelle finishes.

"…Yeah pretty much. I'm also pretty sure that Apple's mother was planning on being the true power behind the throne but… that's just speculation now." Raven sighed. "And queen Snow White did used to tell Apple all about her and my mother's rivalry, and all about what I was supposed to become as bedtime stories when she was growing up. Hex, I wouldn't even be surprised if Apple knew who _I_ was long before I even knew what a _fairytale story_ was! It wasn't until my mother went crazy that it had finally clicked for me that I was supposed to become this Evil Queen character, and it was still quite a while after that before I even knew Apple's name!"

"Your mother didn't tell you much about her role as the Evil Queen?" Faybelle blinked in surprise, because by the time the Evil Queen started loosing it to the point of cursing other worlds Faybelle knew _precisely_ what she was to become after high school.

"No that was mostly my father's doing, at the time he was trying to keep my mother sane enough to curb the impulse to do something drastic, like waking up Sleeping Beauty, every time queen Snow White managed to get under my mother's skin while also trying to imprint inside my head that I could easily find my own happiness in my role as long as I didn't let anybody try to use me for their own vendettas… my mom was more concerned with trying to keep sane and be a good mother to me, I think that it was her love for my father and myself that kept her from going crazy right away but… in the end she just couldn't hold herself together. The Mad Hatter used to tell me that it was like watching the third Queen of Spades become consumed with the hatred and pain of a broken heart until she drowned in the blood of all of her hopes and dreams."

"Surprisingly bloodthirsty those Wonderland types… wasn't the third Queen of Spades the one who massacred her older sister, their court, and her sister's lover?" Faybelle scrunched her face up as she attempted to try to remember the historical reference that Lizzie had once mentioned over tea after yet another world was freed from the former Evil Queen's curse.

Raven scratched her chin in thought. "The first queen adopted the two girls at a very young age to become her heirs, they were related by blood but at the time that had been good enough by old Wonderlandian law to have the two be betrothed to each other… in a platonic sense, it's a Wonderlandian concept and I don't get it much either, but the plan had been that after the first queen passed that the two would come onto the throne as a well trained power couple, sharing the heavy burden of the spade kingdom on two sets shoulders and thus would be spared the trials that the first queen had to endure as one person… however the older sister had always been rather power hungry and had gotten it into her head that she could rule without her little sister, it wasn't an overly ambitious thing at first, it is believed the older sister truly did love her younger sister… just not as much as the younger loved her or nearly as much as the older sister loved the power being the heir brought her."

"Of course." Faybelle nodded having an idea as to where this was going. "Let me guess, over time the older sister grew more power hungry over time and after the first Queen of Spades passed she tried to have the little sister eliminated."

Raven grimaced. "It was worse than that, she had tried to break her little sister to the point of complete obedience so that she could be controlled yet still put up the front of the kingdom being ruled by two monarchs! Some even speculate that the first queen had been poisoned by the older sister's hand as well."

"Break?" Faybelle asked.

"She seduced her little sister's lover into helping her convince the younger that she was losing her mind, tried to have all of the little sister's friends and allies meet with unexpected fatal accidents… tried to seduce her own little sister…" Raven trailed off.

"Ew." Faybelle made a face.

"Yeah. Ew." Raven agreed. "But of course the little sister was not only a lot smarter than what the older sister had originally assumed but had also broken in a totally unexpected way than what was planned. Instead of becoming meeker and more easily managed the little sister only grew more bitter and ruthless while her older sister was not looking until she had been able to sniff out someone who knew what was going on… which had been her former lover, and after a thorough questioning via torture he spilled everything that he knew along with all the promises that the older sister had sworn he'd get if he was successful. She killed him of course and then proceeded to round up her own supporters in the palace and had surprised her sister while she had been holding court with most of her co-conspirators and… well Maddie says that the older sister had been so confident in herself and so vain that she didn't even know that her supposedly cute and innocent little sister was going to kill her until the blade had been thrust into her chest."

"Much like queen Snow White's wisdom to let her would be killer rest in a private room in her home…" Faybelle drew some parallels.

"Legend says that the third queen used her sister's body, and the bodies of all those who had betrayed her, to help fertilize what is now known as the Great Vengeance Hanging Gardens of the Blade Maze and that the preserved heart of the second queen still resides in a box somewhere in the palace dungeons." Raven added mildly.

"Sentimental, degrading, and practical, I like the sounds of this third queen." Faybelle drawled approvingly.

"I thought you would." Raven chuckled.

"The Mad Hatter knew your mother?" Faybelle asked.

"Maddie and I go way back." Raven explained. "Maddie's father and the Cheshire Cat were one of the few people in the Queen of Heart's court that weren't phased by my mother's… imbalanced mind so the queen would send them to conduct business with my parents, that's how I met Maddie and Kitty."

"Is that why the Wonderlandians were practically the only people in school who weren't afraid of you?" Faybelle asked, to be honest the former group of refugees' nonchalance towards Raven's bloodline always had stumped the fairy.

"That's part of it?" Raven didn't look to certain herself. "Maddie and the others have mentioned something along the lines of understanding certain brands of tragic madness when they see it… that and they've been ruled over by more ruthless monarchs than my mother in the past so if she had succeeded really the only people who would have very much objections would be the Hearts tribe if my mother had taken the throne for herself…"

"Huh." Faybelle narrowed her eyes. "If they knew that your mother was one step away from going nuts then why didn't they do something about her earlier?"

"The Hatter said that there was magic tied into my mother's insanity and that the only person who could save her was herself but that will only transpire if she ever manages to figure out where the root of her insanity truly lies and beat it out herself." Raven sighed. "He's right of course, even as a child I was able to sense it, there has always been something else… something completely natural and fairytale wound up inside of her that has been slowly tearing her apart from the inside out, she tried to unconsciously fight it but… well obviously she lost on that front."

Faybelle shivered, being possessed by something that came both from nature and a fairytale was a dangerous combination that rarely ended well for anybody if handled wrong, what was worse was that there was no cure for such things, the inflicted had to fight it off all by themselves or risk loosing everything that they were… by their own self-destruction. It was not a pretty way to go, more often than not in species like witches and fairies the magic stole off pieces of the body's inborn magic and wreaked havoc on the body until everything was all used up, even if they had managed to beat it out of themselves, the magic, if not treated soon enough, gutted them so completely that the victims only spent a short while living a half-life before dying, or just simply collapsed into dust due to being all used up.

"What would you do if she eventually does manage to beat this?" Faybelle asked quietly.

"The woman that loved me like a real mother is long gone." Raven shook her head sadly. "Whatever shade of a witch that remains if she ever beats this… that is of course working under the assumption that there would be enough witch left to survive the sudden loss of natural and fairytale magic, it would not be my mother, not the woman I used to know as my mother at any rate, just a weakened mortal shell of someone that had passed on long ago. The most that I could do is to ensure that she is comfortable to live out what remained of her life force… and/or give her ashes a proper, albeit secret, burial."

Faybelle was silent for a moment, while being the child to a disgraced fairytale villain was certainly bad in most witch and other magical creature cultures having a relative as strong in power as the former Evil Queen to fall prey to not only a curable weakness that she should have sensed out and fixed herself, but also one that had driven her out of her fairytale duties was downright humiliating and not something that one confessed to _just anyone_. "I take it by your willing confession on this delicate matter that this means that… you would like to stay here?" The fairy tried not to let her pathetic hope invade her voice too much.

"I'd like to attempt to stay here indefinitely if I can." Raven nodded shyly. "I have moved on, I have found a new loving relationship where you love me as I do you, I've begun seeing these lands as my new home, aside from the letters and visits I get from people at school I have blessedly heard very little about Royals versus Rebels, and once more I am happy, happy in a way that I have not been since I was very small and my family complete… you have made me happy Faybelle, and I-… If you are amendable to it I'd like it rather a lot if I could continue being your wife, it doesn't matter what official station you put me in I know that as long as you are by my side I shall be more than pleased with life as it is."

The fairy felt as though she had forgotten how to breathe. "And your father's kingdom?" She asked stunned.

"Either I'll swear in one of your relatives after my father goes after a hopefully good long life or if one of our children wants to take up the throne I'll give it to them. I always strived to be my father's child, however I never really got the chance to wrap my mind around me actually ever being _allowed_ to take up his throne after he had gone in the same capacity I truly desired, that of a Lady Good King, daughter of the late Good King." Raven waved such a matter away easily. "As it is most of my people and my government won't object to this seeing as us seceding from the fairytale community has had the support of _ninety percent_ of the population since Legacy Day!"

"And Apple?" Faybelle asked. "She's not likely to stop hounding us."

"She'll wear down as long as I'm out of reach." Raven nodded to herself confidently. "Besides, if Dexter isn't too heartbroken over me I'm pretty certain that second letter I entrusted to him to give to Apple at the appropriate time will get her to at least back down."

"Which draft version of that letter did you decide to send to her?" Faybelle asked referring to the series of unsent letters that Raven had drafted several months ago in varying degrees of reprimand towards Apple as both a means of therapy and last straw defense the witch would take against the princess. They were all far too polite for Faybelle's tastes but Raven had made the executive decision long ago that Faybelle would have the pleasure of dealing harshly with any clingy maidens that should cross Raven's path in the future, a decision that Faybelle _approved_ of with _savage glee_ …

"An updated variation of the one that you had accused of rotting your teeth it was so sweet." Raven informed. "I know that it's not exactly your cup of brew but if I act all viciously wicked with Apple she'll be too hung up about how my negative behavior proved in her mind that I'd be better off back at Ever After as the Evil Queen and the point of the whole thing would be lost to her. If I have any hope of getting through to her that I am happily married and completely moved on I had to be as overly sweet and polite as possible in order for her to catch what I am trying to tell her… that I'm so in love with you now that I'm going to move on and finally forge my own story… the one where the Lady Good Queen decides to stay with the Evil Fairy Queen and live a new life in the mysterious realms of the fairies."

Faybelle grew too besotted to care that she had a pathetically goofy grin plastered onto her face even when she leaned over to thoroughly kiss Raven in celebration.


	9. Chapter 9

It couldn't be…

Could it though? Like seriously it really, really could be!

But does it really matter whether it's true or not?

Hex yes it does!

Okay maybe it does, but what to do if it is proven that Raven really did feel that way?

Not much since she obviously wants nothing to do with Ever After High or a certain selfish princess who had effectively managed to kill off any sort of trust or friendship that Raven once had in her.

And how do we feel about that?

Awful. Obviously.

I meant how do we feel about Raven probably being head-over-heels in love with us before all of this and how we feel about her most likely moving on from us forever after now that we've mucked this all up?

…

…

She put up with some frustrating stuff coming from me didn't she?

That's a bit of an understatement and you know it.

So, okay, yeah… I was pretty rotten to her a bunch of times.

Yes we were.

And yet she still stayed.

She did, and she tried to steer us into a more steady relationship by avoiding talking about our destiny most of the time because she knew that it would only lead into a fight.

…I was the one who started most of our fights wasn't I?

Well we kept saying that we respected her decision and yet whenever she started acting… you know, like Raven usually acts naturally we just…

We hurt her feelings to try to get a reaction that we wanted, an evil reaction.

But can we really call it an evil reaction if she just flared up because we hurt her feelings and she lost control of her magic? And didn't Raven once say that it was embarrassing for a witch to lose control like that? Like it's kind of taboo for a witch to do that in certain situations? Besides that… it doesn't count if she didn't intend to be evil does it?

No it doesn't.

So why did we keep provoking her… we were hurting her weren't we? For her to lose control like that we must have been.

But she would ignore the destiny issue if she wasn't provoked! She- she just acted all nice and un-evil and would talk about things that were going on in her life and all of those things were not destiny related and un-evil and- and…

…

That was the whole point wasn't it?

Yeah. Fairly certain it was.

…And yet she still stayed… she still tried.

She did, didn't she. She must have cared about us a great deal if she was willing to try so hard to live with us.

She didn't even want to live here; she wanted to live with Maddie, her _real_ best friend, why did I ever think that using my influence like this was okay?

Because you wanted to have an evil roommate to play with? Because mom told us all about how wonderful it was to have the Evil Queen as her rival and she regretted not being able to have her around all the time and you had wanted to have the most perfect high school experience so you just assumed that this thing between you and Raven would be the same? Because you knew that Raven couldn't say no even though she obviously wanted to? You are the fairest maiden in school and the local heir to the Ever After throne, all you had to do was smile sweetly and the RA had put Raven in your room even though she had already specifically requested and had been approved to be Maddie's roommate, if Raven had vocally protested or tried to have it changed you knew that the rest of the dorm would be on her back about it… now that I think about it she didn't really have any choice did she?

No she didn't. I trapped her here. Every time she tried to live her life like she wanted to or get away I would try to head her off so that she couldn't…

That doesn't sound like something that a friend would do.

No it's not but… she still liked me right? I mean she took care of me when I was sick, tried to comfort me when I was down, said that my glasses made me look so beautiful, and that she was amazed at how smart I was… she promised not to leave me without a happy ending… even though she would not be in the story herself. She knew just what to say as long as it didn't involve destinies and she practically knew everything about me, she knew secrets that I haven't even told my friends and-

Say just how much exactly do we know about her? She knew everything about us, our hopes, our dreams, our childhood but… did we ever find out what Raven wanted to do after graduation? How she met Maddie? …What being raised by the Evil Queen was like? Was purple her actual favorite color or was it just something she wore so that she wouldn't get into trouble with the whole dress code thing?

…Oh god.

We never asked… did she ever try to tell us?

She did. She must have. I remember a few times she started telling me something but because everything about Raven's likes, dislikes, and past were all directly related to her rebellion against the Evil Queen role…

That's right, she stopped trying to talk about herself after a while didn't she? When was the last time she talked about herself? Hex, she was a witch! Shouldn't there have been a cauldron in the dorm at some point?

Well that whole thing with the bath tub and holding her breath for so long was kind of creepy, she always went over to some other Rebel's room to conduct magic, and she really shouldn't have been climbing trees that high up… she said that it was all normal stuff for her to be doing and that she did all of it at home…

She also said that it wasn't healthy for witches to always be conducting fairytale evil spells whenever they used magic.

But I didn't believe her.

No we did not.

…So when she was home all of that weird stuff was normal? What kind of normal is that?

Witch normal?

Oh. Oooh dear… cultural and racial differences… I forgot- I-I should have- it was so obvious! Raven was a witch!

One witch that mostly practiced her powers outside of the dorm, her own temporary home away from home, to be as far away from us as possible…

Because I forbade her from all of it, I told her it wasn't what normal people did or that Evil Queens shouldn't do it. I outright forbade her from being a witch while in my or my friend's presence and I never even considered what I was asking her! Mom never mentioned the Evil Queen acting like a witch around her so I-I… oh god!

Raven _must_ have loved me; there is just no way that she would have put up with that if she hadn't!

Oh gods she loved me… she- oh no, she really did love me… and I treated her so horribly! I betrayed her! It had always been about me, never was it completely about her! Oh god…

And just to point out mom hasn't exactly proven to be the best authoritative source on what a witch or an Evil Queen really is.

 ** _My mother is a monster!_**

…

…

Apple stared up at her canopy in shock, suddenly feeling very cold in the heat of the early summer warmed room.

XXX

"Huh." Dexter said sitting back after reading Raven's letter.

"You doing okay there buddy?" Hunter, Dexter's roommate asked as he idly packed up more of his things. Hunter's parents had decided to simply go for broke and take their son out of school a little earlier for summer so that they could move, the boy who was already practically living with Ashlynn and her parents had been so used to living out of a suitcase that packing just became second nature to him as far as Dexter could tell.

"Yeah actually I am." Dexter admitted earnestly. "This actually explains a lot, I'm glad that she was willing to tell me all of this and I'm really glad that she still considers me her friend."

When Briar had come up to Dexter to give him Raven's letter the boy had surprised the princess by throwing himself onto his hands and knees at her feet (yes he literally did, he was determined to get his point across _and by the ancestors he wanted to do it right_!) and formally requested that she relay to Raven that he was strong enough to handle all that she was protecting him from and if need be that she consider him and honorary human princess (which had caused Daring, who was standing close by, to grow both mortified and horrified) if that was what it took for her to see that he was serious about being a good friend and helping her out with dealing with her troubles so that she may live a happy life of her own choosing (silently praying to any deity that would listen and trying to cross his toes that he had gotten the cultural nuances right for this sort of situation while ignoring Daring who had attempted to pluck his little brother off the floor and was looking Dexter over for any signs that the younger prince had somehow concussed himself and was babbling nonsense).

Thankfully Briar seemed to be endeared and appeased by Dexter's show and gifted him with the letter Raven had sent to him and a kiss on the cheek in reward (Though Daring hardly noticed, too busy sobbing into his brother's chest when Dexter had snapped at him that there was nothing wrong with a guy being a princess in witch culture and that he'd be a damn adorable one if he so choose to be damnit! It was a high honor amongst witches! And it didn't mean that he'd have to wear a skirt or put on makeup yeesh!).

"That's real mature of you, considering that you've been in love with her ever since first year." Hunter observed.

Dexter rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah well if Raven has taught me anything it's to observe the mood and temperament of others around me to gain a better understanding of myself and to be honest… I really can't find it in myself to be too hurt about Raven marrying Faybelle after everything that she's gone through, and really isn't the only thing that matters is that she's happy?"

"It means everything." Hunter chuckled. "To be honest I find it a little sad that it had ended up this way under less than desirable circumstances but from what I've seen she's doing very well for herself, she's much more happy there than she ever was here."

"That's pretty easy for me to imagine." _Especially in the love department, at least Faybelle seems to like Raven back enough for this relationship to work out_. Dexter thought to himself, wincing slightly because between the two of then Raven was at the disadvantage in regards to first loves, at least Raven had been kind and understanding with Dexter and had always supported him regardless of what their relationship had been… the same could not be said (much to his guilt) towards Apple's behavior towards Raven.

"She's trusting me to make a very important decision for her." Dexter piped up. "I confess I am a bit conflicted about it though."

"Oh? And what decision is that?" Hunter asked.

"She's written a letter to Apple in the hopes that it'll push her to move on and stop getting me to hack into people's phones." Dexter coughed in embarrassment. "Raven's worried about this toxic thing that's between her and Apple ending up harming innocent bystanders she's hoping that a tangible "break up" of their former friendship will snap Apple out of it and allow her to get past this."

Hunter's face soured a bit. "I'd say that you should give it to her, let Apple hear from Raven herself the truth of the matter so that she can quit trying to control everybody for her own personal gain and darn the consequences… or the casualties."

"Raven's nervous that her acknowledging Apple's existence will only make things worse. Give Apple hope that just by the mere fact of Raven contacting her will mean that she can force everything to return to normal." Dexter spoke gently causing Hunter to sigh unhappily.

"…How is Ashlynn?" Dexter decided to ask.

"She's one tough cookie." Hunter smiled sadly. "Her hip was the worst hit and she has to keep up her walks everyday or else her whole leg will stiffen up on her, changes in weather always bother her these days, recovering is slow and she's in pain most of the time, but the doctors are optimistic that her young age and vitality will see her walking without the cane at least. You should come and visit when you have the chance, she'd like that."

"I'll bring Darling, maybe even Daring if I can hide his mirror for long enough." Dexter promised with a small smile.

"Do you need help with you decision?" Hunter asked.

"Raven said that I could allow more than one person to see her letter as long as they keep quiet about it and don't gossip about it to the entire school. So basically she's excluding most everyone on the Royal side of the fence." Dexter nodded while handing the letter out for Hunter to read. "I gotta warn you though, it's pretty bittersweet."

"I'll keep that in mind." Hunter promised as he began to read.

XXX

Apple lay boneless on her bed, staring mournfully up at Briar's hard, angry glower, the two were silent, not a word being spoken between them since Briar had barged in with a very irritated; "You had better not give me a bunch of lousy half-baked excuses and you had better not feel justified in what you did!" Before assuming her current position, arms crossed, posture stiff, beside the bed of the morose blonde princess.

Apple knew that if she said a word that she'd get yelled at, and that if she tried to ignore her former best friend that she'd still get yelled at, sure Apple supposed that she did deserve it, even though she was already feeling pretty down and wasn't in the mood to fight.

Apple sighed suddenly feeling a pang of pity for what Raven must have felt back in the days when Apple was adamant that perhaps if she could argue and needle the witch enough that perhaps _this time_ Raven would lose it and finally realize that she was evil after all-

Apple's mood plummeted impossibly further.

"Before you yell at me like I know I deserve to be right now please just… answer one question for me? Before all of this… before I messed it all up and caused Raven to go away from Ever After… _wassheinlovewithme_?" Apple immediately held her breath eyes squeezed shut.

"You mean you didn't know before now?" Briar snorted in disbelief.

Apple's heart stopped. "So she really _is_ in love with me… it wasn't… it couldn't have been romantic could it?"

"She _was_ romantically in love with you." Briar corrected. "She _was_ in love with you, but she isn't anymore. She has moved on. She has a new life far away from here, She is happy to be married to Faybelle and that is not going to change just because you demand it."

"She told you she was in love with me?" Apple continued on her voice breathlessly quiet.

Briar narrowed her eyes. "Yes she did, but I knew about her feelings for you long before then, lots of us knew as it has turned out."

" _Lots of us_?" Apple squeaked.

"Would you put up with someone constantly calling you evil and openly scheming all the ways to that they could go about destroying your freedom and dreams? Not to mention trying to forcefully get you to make a bloody fool of yourself in front of the entire school by publically being shamed at each and every opportunity by a spoiled princess using her power and popularity to humiliate you and stayed their roommate throughout it all in spite of everything else?" Briar demanded. "Apple… how _anybody_ could deny that Raven must have cared for you an _extraordinary_ amount is simply insane! She always took care not to hurt your feelings too much and the way that she used to look at you… ancestors I've never _seen_ anything more sweet and heartbreaking at the same time!"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Apple demanded sounding confused and hurt.

"Oh yeah that would've turned out well." Briar rolled her eyes. "Apple, before the Dragon Games Raven was doing her best to be a good friend while also trying to get over you without harming your friendship. If we had told you, with the way you are about destiny how do you think it would have turned out for her? Or how you would have treated her? It would have been a very cruel thing for us to do indeed."

"You thought that I would have hurt her?" Apple accused.

"It's more like I had a hunch that the knowledge of her feelings for you would've gotten twisted up with your obsession for her to become your story's villain and that you would've overreacted and done something drastic to try to force her into compliance with your views on how she should feel and behave… granted you ended up doing just that during the Dragon Games…" Briar's eye twitched in irritation. "Really Apple how do you think you would have reacted?"

"I don't know how I would have reacted but I wouldn't have- I-I wouldn't have intentionally tried to hurt her!" Apple proclaimed defensively.

"And I'm sure that you said the same thing to yourself when you stabbed her in the back and let her mother go free." Briar's smile was condescending and dripping with venom.

"I made one mistake! I was desperate! I just wanted everyone to follow their stories like they should!" Apple snapped, upset despite knowing that this was going to lead to a fight (for a guilty instant Apple missed fighting with Raven, at the very least the witch did not go out of her way to arrange her words to hurt the blonde).

"A mistake that could have very well cost a lot of people their lives!" Briar hissed, eyes wide with anger. "You keep saying that you only want the best for everybody, that it is for their own good that they stick with tradition, and that you going through with your story will not only give you the life you had always wanted but we both know that is nothing but a lie!"

"How is it a lie if it's the truth?" Apple threw one hand up in the air, exasperated beyond belief.

" _I_ had believed that it was true, that you genuinely thought that, and that you genuinely cared about the rest of us, until the little fact about popularity points came out!" Briar snipped. "How the mere thought of Raven being a little bit more likable with the general populace than you were had been enough excuse for you to go into drastic action. Oh dear, _dear no_ Raven simply _could not dare_ to be likable or successful in her revolution now could she? She just had to be hated and feared and all alone save for the times when you generously decided to grace her with your perfect presence right?"

"How did you know about-? Did _Faybelle_ tell you?" Apple demanded.

"The Evil Fairy told me actually, while she had swung by the hospital to see how Ashlynn's first surgery had gone." Briar sneered. "She had a recorded confession from your mother that she played for us at Ashlynn's parent's request. It told us everything from the loss in popularity points- and how your mother got enough information to create a baseline of your overall popularity still creeps me out FYI- to you and your mother's plot to use the inevitable evil outburst from the Evil Queen to both boost your own popularity and to belittle Raven's legitimacy in her rebel cause!"

Apple visibly wilted.

Briar began pacing. "But you want to know the really scary part? Aside from the fact that you willingly risked the lives of everyone at school in the process I believe that you and your mother truly had no idea of the wider long-term ramifications such a scheme would have had upon the villain community at large!"

"Ramifications?" Apple asked confused.

"Did you honestly expect that the stigma of being the child of the worst crazed villain in recorded history would merely fall solely upon Raven's shoulders?" Briar demanded. "If you and your mother had been successful Raven's home kingdoms would have suffered even more than they already are and other villain ruled kingdoms would be suffering as well! Do you have any idea how much trade and allied relationships to fairytale kingdoms depend on the reputations of the ruling families? That is the livelihoods of not thousands but perhaps _millions_ of ordinary citizens that live in those countries and territories threatened because of your need to appear better than the fairytale villains and more popular than all of the other fairytale princesses in the school! You may not see much harm in it since you have lived nothing but a sheltered life of wealth and have only seen the inside of your own kingdom for nearly your entire existence but really a mere basic search on the mirror-net would have shown you enough proof that the former Queen kingdom has been suffering greatly since the former Evil Queen lost it! What happens in the fairytales matters more than stupid popularity points damnit!"

"What?" Apple actually sits up slightly at this looking alarmed. "How bad off were they?"

"Almost all of their imports and exports had to be filtered through the Good King's original kingdom and more than once before Raven's big show on Legacy Day a citizen from the old Queen kingdom or territory had ran the risk of being targeted by hate groups and merchants wrongfully imprisoned in fringe communities of Ever After simply due to their ancestry and culture." Briar informed grimly.

Apple gaped. "…In _my_ kingdom-?"

"Especially in _your_ kingdom." Briar glared poisonously. "Your mother, their pure and maidenly queen, had been poisoned by the worst villain in history and she would not stop laminating about it. Being the loyal citizens that the people of Ever After are they strived to ensure that their beloved fair royal family was protected from the citizens of the Queen lands and let's not forget the written threats that such patriotic Ever After citizens sent to the Queen and King realms directed towards Raven as a baby and her entire family."

"Threats? Towards Raven?" Apple looked genuinely surprised, which only caused Briar's face to sour further.

"Yes, before she lost her mind every time the Evil Queen gained a fair bit of respect amongst her peers your mother would get on her soapbox about how horrible she was, thus upsetting Ever After citizens, thus leading to the threats that continued on up until Legacy Day if I got my information right." Briar tapped her foot impatiently. "But of course you had no clue about all of this."

"I certainly did not!" Apple stared at the other completely horrified. "Why didn't Raven tell me?"

"She tried." Briar gritted her teeth. "But every time she brought up international relations to try to use your goodwill towards her to help her people you would derail the subject and scold her about destiny!"

"Oh." Apple said, voice small.

"Yeah oh! And other villain countries would have been facing the same dilemma right now if the Thorn clan hadn't stepped in! Centuries of carefully constructed peace and international and inter-dimensional relations shot all to hell, maybe even risking all out war just like in the bad old days all because you and your mother wanted to be popular and rule over everybody else in a _high school_!" Briar snapped spitting mad now.

"I- we didn't know!" Apple defended clutching her chest.

Briar threw up her arms. "Of course not! Such things have nothing to do with the story of Snow White and are obviously _not important enough_ to address over living out a supposed happily ever after! How horrible would it be for a Snow White or her daughter to have to actually address the _real world_ around them when they could just as easily pretend that being a fairytale character exempts them from such things!"

Apple's mouth opens and closes like a suffocating fish, Briar's remark hitting so close to home that she is too stunned to even speak.

"There is nothing you could offer Raven that could possibly be worth her willingly coming back to Ever After under any circumstances aside from a vegetative state and a really hard to find tower." Briar continues slowly making her way towards the door. "You have to accept that in this instance the line you had crossed simply cannot be forgiven no matter how much you try to argue otherwise, and whether or not Raven sends you any form of physical or vocal message telling you so does not matter, it is done, and now you had better get on with your life just as Raven has hers, you are driving the lot of us up the wall with your constant bemoaning attitude."

"But I am sorry!" Apple called before Briar was out of sight. "I am so very sorry, for everything you have to believe me! I never meant to hurt Raven or anybody else, I swear if I had thought for an instant that my actions would hurt anybody I would have stopped it all!"

Briar paused, casting Apple a withering glance.

"It's true!" Apple pleaded to be heard. "I thought that things would go differently than they did because the Evil Queen loved Raven so much and because she was bound to her destiny! I knew that she was evil but she had never been as evil in my mother's stories about the two of them in high school! …How I had thought that Raven and I could become if she could just embrace her destiny to be my villain, I was too enchanted by what could have been to appreciate what I had and I was petrified that I'd never become the same kind of Snow White as my mother is if Raven weren't there to make certain that it all went according to plan-! …I never wanted to hurt her... and whatever you may think of me I'd never have lost it like that if I had known that she loved me so, I'd probably wouldn't have set the Evil Queen free in the first place if I had known just how much Raven loved me and was working so hard to keep our friendship as it was!"

"Of course you would have… _princess_." Briar intones after a moment of silence before walking out of the room, Apple breaking down at the sound of the door closing softly into place.

XXX

"So what do you think?" Dexter asks Hunter.

"…I think that I am ever grateful that Ashlynn loves me back, also, I now need a tissue." Hunter sniffled, wiping at his eyes as he offered the letter back to the boy.

"I know right? I knew that Raven was in love with somebody unattainable but I never knew the full extent of it." Dexter confessed with a shake of the head. "I gotta say I'm a little embarrassed, compared to her feeling for Apple my crush on Raven looks more like a little kid's infatuation towards their babysitter or something of the like. It's heartbreaking to see how such a love could be snuffed out of existence so thoroughly, even if it did all turn out for the best on Raven's end…"

"So what do you think? Should Apple read this letter?" Hunter asked. "Do you think that it would help things in any way?"

"…It can't hurt to try can it?" Dexter asked the air cautiously.

XXX

The letter had been found on Apple's bed, turning up mysteriously after she came back from class, a simple white envelope with her name written in Raven's elegant hand. It had been quite the thorough affair, going on for several pages addressing Raven's side of their relationship, trying to explain to Apple her motivations for turning Rebel and confessing her embarrassingly persistent growing infatuation with the princess in a way that Apple probably would have never been able to really listen to in it's entirety if Raven had been there to speak for herself. When it reached the Dragon Games and Raven's newly budding feelings for Faybelle Apple had been tempted to stop and toss the paper aside, the emotions within her growing unbearably painful, but she soldiered on regardless to her initial instincts… she owed Raven that much after everything that had happened.

 _…And then I suddenly realized one day that it was not a cage that I was now living in, it was a bird's nest! A new home that I could find happiness in, to be honest I'm too much of a cynic to be saying that this is my happily ever after, however I will say that I am happy and quite deliriously besotted with my wife. I will admit that I was hurting and utterly terrified when all this started out but it had all turned out so well so quickly that I could scarcely believe it! It was dizzying how well everything just started clicking into place now that I was well and truly free from destiny and I am still marveling how my gratitude towards Faybelle for risking her life to defeat my mother and stealing the Evil Queen role for herself had evolved into love and the first (and hopefully only, now that we are going steady) healthy long-term romantic relationship that I have ever experienced!_

 _Now understand Apple that I still just cannot condone what you had done even though it has turned out very well for me, my personal dealings with fairytales and Ever After are over, and if Faybelle and I ever decide to have children my involvement will still be little to none outside of being ridiculously proud of them for whatever path they deem to choose in life, whether it be good, evil, or somewhere in the grey middle. That being said I still feel as though I should thank you to a certain extent for inadvertently ensuring that my mother now cannot truly harm anybody anymore and for unintentionally throwing Faybelle and myself together, I truly hope that this is the start of a long happy life for me._

 _Again that being said I do hope that you find the courage to stand up on your own and forge your own happily ever after as the new Snow White (because yes Faybelle poisoning you did count and even though you had missed your chance with Darling (she and Holly already liked each other before but between your life crisis and the realization that Darling qualifies as a bonafide female Prince Charming Holly couldn't help but steal Darling away and Darling being a Rebel did not think that she had to force you to be her princess since you were so dead set on denying that it counted) and I know for a fact that you have enough training and brains under your belt to become the next queen of Ever After once your mom is ready to retire) and_ _even though our friendship did not work out I do hope that one day we could at least eventually learn to get along as allies? Maybe? It's a long shot I know but there is no reason to let our complicated situation affect our people and I know that once the two of you can get to the point of not arguing for two seconds that you and Faybelle could totally dominate the political international thing between our kingdoms and territories!_

 _I only hope for you the very best and that you could please stop trying to_ _kidnap me back into Ever After? No seriously, Faybelle and I have been tentatively discussing the possibility of children and even though that may be a few years off… you never really know and besides that I have responsibilities now that I'm the Lady Good King and being trained to help rule my new home at the side of my wife the Evil Fairy Queen. I know that you can find your own happily ever after if you just try, and I sincerely hope that you can find it within yourself to accept what has transpired and move on._

 _Always rooting for you even from afar, Lady Good King Raven._

A happily ever after without Raven always being in it? Apple mourned, but this time trying to listen, trying to do as Raven said and accept what had happened and to figure something out.

Being allies would not be much to sate the incurable feeling that Apple had missed out on something important but perhaps… it would be enough to properly apologize through actions and then… something positive may transpire from a great deal of patience and mutually beneficial action?

The maybes of the future hurt and were terrifying but Apple had to try. For Raven she would try.


	10. Chapter 10

A/n: Wheeeeeee! I'm proud of myself that this hadn't turned into a long drawn out affair like I had feared it would.

FYI **_Maan_** is the Hindi word for Mother; I wanted to add a bit more culture to my writings for variety (as if it hadn't already been obvious) so naturally I decided that Raven should be called mother in another language by her children just for fun.

XXX

"Maan why was mother so upset about you coming with me to the first day of school alone?" A deep baritone voice asked as a young teenaged warlock with fiery dark red hair, dark skin, and serious golden yellow eyes walked arm in arm with his pregnant mother down Ever After High's hallways.

Raven couldn't help but chuckle causing her son to stare at her in confusion. "Oh don't mind your mother Kalim she's just paranoid that I'll be kidnapped and placed in a tower for safe keeping."

Kalim blinked. "I thought that was the fate of Rapunzel not the fate of an Evil Queen?" The boy looked uncertain, aside from the tales of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Wonderland his mother Faybelle would often make up outright outrageous lies about other stories and his maan Raven more often than not laughed too hard to bother with correcting the stories therefore Kalim and his younger sister Tali were often left with conflicting versions of fairytales that did not match up with what was traditionally considered the " _correct_ " versions, this was especially encouraged by a good majority of their numerous adopted aunties and uncles and therefore both brother and sister were left with the impression that all fairytale characters were somewhat crazy deep down and not to worry about specifics if they had decided to go through with a fairytale themselves.

"It is but you have to remember Kalim that your mother and I turning the tale of Snow White on it's head and running off to get married at such a young age did cause quite the uproar back in the day." Raven reminded the boy. "Many people, the Headmaster especially included, weren't too pleased with our decision to leave our schooling incomplete… among other things as well…" Raven trailed off with another distracted chuckle idly tugging on her son's white shirtsleeve and smoothing down the collar of his purple vest as she spoke.

"You seem oddly amused today." Kalim observed. "But in contrast Mother was rather nervous when she and Tali left us to attend that meeting with Miss Apple and queen Snow White."

"Oh don't worry so much about your mother, she's just paranoid up the wazoo that I'll manage to find trouble for myself just like in the old days." Raven sighed in fond exasperation. "Back then trouble always seemed to find me no matter what I did."

"Indeed that was true you were always a trouble maker, even when you no longer attended school." A gravely voice spoke behind them.

The Headmaster had aged more than quite a bit over the years Raven observed with a twinge of pity, he certainly seemed a lot younger than his age back when she was in school but now… he looked, if possible, much older than he probably was.

The witch offered the old man a wide grin and an amused laugh, pulling down the wide hood of her long conservative plain white and light green desert robes (which she mostly wore for warmth since a few years of living in a dessert made Ever After seem positively freezing!) to better reveal her sun darkened skin, black as night hair, the henna tattooed sides of her face, ears adorned with both turquoise decorated cuffs and earrings, a silver chain linking the left earring to the loop of her nose ring, and a bright red bindi dot on her forehead to signify her status as a married monarch. "That certainly is true, used to drive you up the wall if memory serves me correctly. How are you Headmaster Grimm? Long time no see."

"Not for a lack of trying." The man cast the young woman a withering look. "We never stopped searching for you for a long time you know. Where did they manage to hide you for so long if I may ask?" It was a polite request but the man's tone implied a carefully layered order.

Raven grinned wider. "Mostly the low desert lands of sand and black rock, the Thorn clan's biggest territory in the fairy realms."

The Headmaster blinked in surprise a vague expression of recognition crosses his features, it is nearly impossible for one person to remember or even know about all the various lands and territories that the monarchs who attend the school rule over especially when it comes to the secretive fairy realms. "The Thorn family has lands there?"

"Indeed they do." Raven nodded smirking. "Though I can understand your confusion since the name that they call it outside of the region literally translates to the _Land of White and Black Seas_ in standard language, quite confusing until you realize that they are comparing the vast expanse of white sand and black rock to a large sea…"

The Headmaster smacked a hand to his face when he realized that one mere translation misunderstanding had thrown off the search in entirely the opposite direction they had needed to go!

"Headmaster I'd like you to meet my son Kalim Thorn King, you already know this but he will be attending this school starting today." Raven gently coaxed the old man from his task of grumbling to himself by reminding him of why she was there.

"It is an honor to meet you sir, maan and Mister Giles Grimm have informed me that aside from your different stances on the Rebel conflict that she respects you greatly and that you are a tough but fair Headmaster to this school. I look forward to receiving my schooling here." Kalim politely inclined his head.

Giles, having an "in" with the Wonderlandians thanks to years of experience with their culture and language eventually managed to gain enough trust and favors to convince Lizzie Hearts (now the official Queen of Hearts) to reintroduce him (and only him, that was the deal, no scheming older brothers, and no looking into where Raven was currently living out her days) to Raven at a Wonderlandian ball, by that time several years had passed and Raven had been pregnant with her and Faybelle's daughter Tali and Kalim had been around eight years of age.

"She did?" The Headmaster looked taken aback.

"She did." Raven confirmed fondly.

The Headmaster took a moment to stare at her. "Fourteen years…" The man mumbled to himself, looking between the witch and her son.

Raven knew what he was thinking; Kalim had been an estimated three years of age when she and Faybelle adopted him, not long after the two had found the half-starved and sunburned abandoned boy wandering aimlessly beside the road of one of the kingdoms that Raven had freed from the former Evil Queen's curse, since they loved him just as much as they would with a child born from their own blood it was not uncommon for most of the family to let others assume that Kalim was Raven's son by blood and that the Thorn clan had carefully hidden her away for all those first months so that she could quietly give birth to an heir for them. It rather amused the Evil Fairy who went out of her way to encourage such lies whenever she had to deal with the more prudish of the fairytale monarchies.

Raven's smile turned teasing. "Kalim is going to be our test subject to see how well applying himself to both the hero and villain tracks works out to help him decide whether he wants to take after the Evil Fairy Queen, his grandfather the Good King, or to be a little Rebel like me. But don't worry yourself if he turns Rebel Headmaster, his younger sister Tali has skipped several grades and will be following in his footsteps soon enough and in four months we'll have two more out in the world." The witch smoothed down her robes to reveal the before hidden swell of her pregnant belly, which caused the Headmaster's eyes to bug-out slightly. "There will be many candidates for potential fairytale characters in the future if they so choose that path."

"You've been busy…" The Headmaster hedged, not looking too happy, his expression causing Raven to chuckle at the nostalgia of it, where once upon a time such reactions might've angered her, nowadays she just found such things hilarious (especially since she had the freedom now to just go home if she began to tire of such things), though she was mostly laughing now because most of the same people who tried to control her in her youth could not do a single thing to go against her life choices now, she was getting the last laugh.

"I was actually in the process of helping Kalim with finding where his new classrooms are so that he can find them later before we have to head over to orientation." Raven informed lightly, cheerfully ignoring the unreadable look that the Headmaster had attempted to pin her with.

It is at that moment that the Headmaster took notice of Kalim who was shifting from foot to foot awkwardly.

"Why don't I help you give that tour." The Headmaster offered (ordered). "I was surprised to say the least when I noticed young Mister… _King's_ name on the roster for incoming students, Giles is ecstatic that you decided to send your children here by the way, the two of you should come and visit with him after orientation."

Raven perked up at the mention of her old mentor, studiously ignoring the way the man seemed to gloss over her wife's name in their son's title (leave that battle for Faybelle to deal with since Kalim seemed content with just rolling his eyes at the obvious dismissal of his _evil_ mother). "I'd love to see Giles again! We've only been able to contact each other through letters and I haven't seen him since the last Wonderlandian celebration for the lifting of all the curses upon the worlds!"

XXX

"You're pulling this meeting along surprisingly quickly." Faybelle observed Apple with guarded stoic suspicion. "I had thought that getting this treaty signed was going to take and extraordinary amount of effort… considering _who_ I am dealing with." The fairy cast apple a significant glance.

Apple blinked innocently. "I hardly see why you would think that was the case, this treaty is mutually beneficial to our people and more importantly… my mother is not here." As if to hit the point further home Apple made a big show of pointing to the elaborate empty throne at the other end of the long conference table.

The bells adorning the antlers of Faybelle's crown jingled softly in the silence as the fairy turned her head to regard the empty throne with mild consideration. "Why has your mother never been present to a meeting between us?"

It wasn't the first time the fairy had asked Apple a personal question towards the end of the proceedings, nor was it the most difficult to answer, that very first question that had been asked after that very first meeting had been the most tricky, after all Apple didn't quite know how to _voice_ all of the reasons (or more accurately _who_ had influenced Apple) why she had worked so hard to become Faybelle's political ally, they were professional with each other, they got things done that ended up benefitting their people greatly, but there was still no denying the tinged hostility that still lay between them even after fourteen years had passed since Faybelle had spirited Raven away and changed everything permanently.

"Officially my mother trusts me to deal with certain international affairs while she attends to her other duties." Apple recited with monotone practiced ease.

"And unofficially?" Faybelle prompted.

Apple cast the fairy a flat look because she knew that Faybelle already knew the reasons why.

"There is a reason why my mother has decreed that I still be known as _Princess Apple_ even though my story has been completed as you well know by now." Apple huffed out with a putout mu of her lips.

Faybelle is stoically silent for a moment, studying the human passively.

"We aren't incredibly fond of each other, our friendship is a rather conventional one to say the least."

"That's putting things mildly." Apple muttered, the memory of Raven's heartbroken wails and Faybelle kissing the witch into silence as Apple descended into unconsciousness nearly causing the princess to wince.

"That being said I do prefer to have an ally I can rely upon and seeing as we have somehow managed to make this work… I'd be reluctantly willing to help you ascend the throne as queen, convince your mother to retire and take back her old name." Faybelle offered sounding as if she'd rather be somewhere else at that moment. "Relax princess, remember the privacy charms prevent your mother's pets from overhearing our conversations."

Apple turned her worried gaze away from the dwarves standing guard by the walls in favor of glaring mildly at the fairy. "My thanks for your generous offer but that is not needed at this point in time… I will keep it in mind though… however I find that working behind the scenes while my mother takes care of the public appearances is actually quite rewarding." Apple knew that her mother's original plans had been for _her_ to be the power behind the throne when Apple became Snow White, however the woman's will to foresee over every aspect of Apple's life had deteriorated the longer the former Evil Queen slept and the more it became apparent that Raven would never be coming to poison Apple. Apple was careful about it, had her father to help her hide it from the older woman, but soon enough after graduation Apple had become the sweet dutiful daughter who obediently took over a great deal of the queen's duties that did not involve public appearances or interacting too much with the "important" royalty leaving Apple to create a surprising number of personal allies with villain families and minor fairytale roles along with smaller kingdoms.

"…There is one thing that I have been worrying over that you may be willing to help me out with." Apple hedged tentatively. "…You see… for years now I've strongly suspected that my father is not my mother's true love, which as you probably know is due to the fact that the spell normally used on Snow Whites by the Evil Queens is designed to have the prince chosen by the royal family and not the actual true love be the one to wake her up."

"You've done your research." Faybelle drawled lazily. "What does this have to do with me? Bit late to change things don't you think princess?"

"The vines protecting the former Evil Queen do not affect my mother." Apple informs. "In fact I've seen them move out of the way more times than I can count, they _let_ her curl up next to the former Evil Queen."

Faybelle sits up looking a touch more serious. "I have heard some… rumors of this being so… why? Has your mother done anything with Raven's mother that would be considered… off mark?"

"You'd know better than I." Apple shrugged already suspecting that her mother's former study was being spied upon. "The only reason why I am bringing this up is because… occasionally, I'm not supposed to, but occasionally I check in to make certain that all is well, especially since recently my mother has been in quite a state and secretly sending doctors up into her chambers."

"And?" Faybelle prompted.

"She is not well." Apple informed. "She's dying, the doctor I managed to bribe information out of says that for some reason her magical core has been hollowed out to the point where she barely has enough life force left."

"Ah." Faybelle nodded. "Raven suspected that much was the case in the nature of her mother's insanity."

"If my mother were to kiss her… wake her up do you suppose-?"

Faybelle shook her head cutting the princess off, the bells on the antlers sounding impossibly somber. "She was too far gone by the time the Dragon Games came around, the most merciful thing we can do is to let her dream of better things as her body turns to dust. I don't know how she had managed to break herself free in such a unconscious state but we can at the very least put a spell on her that might help increase the amount of good dreams she can have and hope that your mother does not decide to kiss her back into cruel reality. How long did the doctor say that she has left?"

"Maybe more than a year, maybe less." Apple slumps down in defeat. "My mother is half convinced that you guys are the ones who've killed her, just a heads up."

Faybelle nodded. "We will proceed with caution should she seek vengeance. Is there anything else?"

"Wren wants to visit Kalim at the school, she was wondering if you and Tali would be willing to take her to him if we finished early enough for you to make orientation." Apple requested politely.

Wren had been the one thing that her mother was still sore over; not long after high school graduation Apple had wanted a child and an heir for future security but could not stomach the thought of having to marry a suitor of her mother's choosing (her mother had _terrible, terrible_ tastes in " _acceptable_ " young men of the correct breeding), so Apple, with her father and his family backing her up, and went ahead to a fertility clinic in the next kingdom and got artificially inseminated by a random donor's seed.

The fallout from that had been rather epic, Apple rather worried that her mother would attempt something drastic and the fact that Apple refused to allow her mother to bully her into getting married or terminate the pregnancy had set the woman off even more than before, but in the end Wren had been born without a father regardless to her grandmother's efforts to the contrary. It had, Apple was certain, something to do with how Apple had made a big public show of _not needing_ a prince and essentially keeping herself as pure as the first Snow White had been before she had married her prince.

Pretty difficult to recount that once it hit the newsstands.

Hilariously enough after meeting each other at one of the first few of Apple and Faybelle's attempts at being allies five years ago Kalim and Wren, despite being nearly a year and a half apart in age bonded together like glue and have been nearly inseparable friends ever since, and when Tali was old enough to come around Wren doted upon the girl just as much as her proud big brother.

…Which had been fantastic for the kids but more than a little awkward for the adults, especially since Raven didn't quite know if she could handle being near Apple without letting her lingering fear that the princess was going to drag her away slip through (she was trying to get better, for the sake of the kids she was determined not to let it interfere with their lives, but she couldn't control the intense feelings of fear sometimes and the kids had picked up on it unfortunately, even if they weren't certain, not completely, why the normally brave Lady Good King would go into such a state), Faybelle was the epitome of protective when it came to her wife being uncomfortable and that was especially so with Apple because the fairy strongly suspected that Apple still carried some form of… _significant feelings_ for Raven that perhaps even extended to the point where the princess still probably felt as though the witch was still "hers".

Apple has as of yet to gather up the courage to try to go and speak to Raven face to face those rare times the two of them had been in a room, albeit briefly, together, …and to be honest Apple didn't know if she could handle speaking to Raven without crying her eyes out, the princess knew instinctively that she had missed out on _something important_ with Raven (and sometimes she got that vibe from Darling too, she didn't know to what extent that one went since she had never thought about Darling in a romantic light before and she wasn't so certain that Darling had either… and if she had, well Apple's initial firm denial that Darling could ever be her Prince Charming probably effectively put the other girl off any potential romantic involvement… it was still baffling to be honest) and deep down Apple knew that if she took a moment to really look into what that thing was she'd find it and it would probably break her heart irreversibly. Apple knew that if she ever wanted to move on from… whatever it was that she felt for Raven now that she'd have to confront this head-on…

However she wasn't ready yet, it was stupid and probably not all that healthy but the mere thought that Raven would hardly even blink let alone _care_ if Apple were to suddenly move on and get over her thing with the witch… hurt. She'd do it eventually, time may have left her with an aching scar but life did have a tendency to throw stuff in to complicate your perfectly perfected state of miserable woe, but until that day came Apple was going to concentrate on her daughter's happiness and wellbeing (actual happiness not the fake fairytale kind that her mother wanted from her) while also working under her mother's nose as the new power behind the throne so that she could prepare herself to become more than just a fairytale perfect queen, she was determined to be the type of queen that made history by creating a more sturdy platform for international affairs and more diverse cultural and social tolerance, something that had become distressingly fractured during her mother's rule and had actually left them on the brink of some real trouble before Apple had taken the initiative to look past the false illusions of fairytale stability and had found ways (dastardly ways but it was a necessary emergency) to find herself some more competent advisors.

 _Thankfully_ thus far there had been an unspoken truce erected between the three of them when their kids became friends and a carefully crafted system to help keep their drama out of their kid's lives put into place.

"Sure thing." Faybelle shrugged easily. "It's been like, a week since I last saw your little ankle biter face to face, I wonder how much she's grown since then, do you suppose that she'll remember me?" The fairy joked, Tali having been at the White castle so often that she knew where to run to find the older girl on her own as soon as she reached the front doors.

"Ha ha." Apple rolled her eyes, relaxing slightly as the tense mood had been dropped. "She adores Kalim and Tali, you and Raven too, I'm glad that you guys have been so willing to let her be apart of your lives, she's certainly learning a lot about other cultures and races which is fantastic since she'll be getting a culture shock next year when she attends Ever After High."

"Yeah well…" Faybelle waves her hand in a vague manor. "She's an alright kid, grasps the intricate relationship between a maiden and a villain quite well I think. She'll make an excellent fairytale princess when the time is right."

"If that's what the future allows then I trust that one of your children will take good care of her." Apple stated and she meant it, Wren had voiced her intention to become the next Snow White before, which both made Apple insanely proud and worried her greatly, Wren didn't know of it of course, Apple had shielded her daughter fiercely from certain unsavory at-home-politics, but Apple's mother had vocalized on the odd occasion, growing in frequency as the high school years approached that perhaps (and by "perhaps" it was strongly implied that the word really meant " _you-will-by-god-I-will-find-a-way-to-make-you_ ") Apple find herself a prince to produce another child with and that it would be more _appropriate_ that second child be the next Snow White since it was all about the tradition of it and all.

And throughout all of the layers of subtly Apple had realized with sudden, chilling clarity that it may very well be that her mother's new, revised plan now that Apple's chance at a perfect fairytale ending was sidelined was that Apple and Wren should not be allowed to take over the throne anytime soon, if ever, not if Snow White could find a way to persuade Apple to marry a Prince Charming and have her second child be the one to take on the roll properly, bring back the long sought out glory days when the current queen had near unlimited power amongst her peers, a legacy that would bring about a new era where the tale of Snow White would reign supreme as the most prestigious fairytale of them all.

Of course after the epic disaster that had been left in the wake of her mother's last attempt at such a thing Apple was adamant that such a situation only transpire over her cold dead body and since her mother needed her _alive_ to produce the heir in question and marry the prince it was not gonna happen. _Ever_.

"I have heard rumors of a certain queen who would prefer to have an heir born from more traditional parentage…" Faybelle began with a sneer at the mention of queen Snow White, which pretty much confirmed Apple's suspicions of fairy spies on the loose in the White castle. "Wren is a shining example of a princess and I have little doubts that she will make an agreeable queen one day, if difficulties arrive Raven and I will be willing to do our part to ensure the security of her future. The Thorn clan is notoriously protective of our favored damsels after all and we very much like little Wren." There was a part predatory, part protective lilt in the fairy's tone, the woman's pupil's dilating and her teeth showing ever so slightly.

Apple breathed a long awaited sigh of relief that she hadn't realized she was holding in, a poisoning couldn't happen without the villain, as Apple had learned very well long ago, and if Raven was on her side along with Faybelle in this then her daughter's dreams were safe.

"Thank you, I will keep you apprised of any potential… obstacles that may stand in the way of my daughter's happiness." Apple smiled weakly. "You best get going if you are to make orientation and helping your boy move in."

XXX

Raven snuggled up lovingly to Faybelle's side little Tali sitting in her pregnant mother's lap watching the proceedings going on the front lawn with wide violet eyes and her long dark hair done up in a similar style to what Raven used to wear back in high school, a perfect clone of the witch save for the pointed taper of the ears and light translucent blue fairy wings sprouting from the little girl's pale back and dark purple and navy blue sun dress.

Faybelle stood tall beside her wife's chair, looming positively wickedly and incredibly self-satisfied just as any proper Evil Fairy and Evil Queen would in her situation (particularly whenever she caught the Headmaster's disapproving glower and met his gaze with a smugness that almost felt like a separate entity it was layered on her face so thick), devoted pregnant wife and daughter on one side, an arm slung around the shoulders of her proud (albeit a little nervous) handsome son on the other side (who was also gaining the highly appreciative looks of many future classmates which was part of the reason why he appeared to be so nervous) and half clinging, half molding herself to the young warlock's side was Wren (who was casting a cool territorial charming grin at every ogling eye she could catch looking at Kalim, something that the boy seemed to be encouraging for apparent growing fears for his virtue), giggling at the little jokes that Kalim would toss here and there, pale (oh so very, beautifully pale) strawberry blonde curls bouncing at the action and grinning all the wider in good humor when the boy half-hugged her in obvious alarm when one particularly brave maiden came up to flirtatiously hand him her phone number, the boy doing very well in masking his discomfort despite his death grip on wren's blush pink and peach royal everyday frilly dress.

"Quite the happy family." Briar drawled, coming up behind Apple who stood silently and out of sight high up in the school's mirrornet tower, it was a near thing but this time she had actually managed not to flinch when Briar had decided to sneak up on her for whatever reasons that Briar tended to always sneak up on her these days.

"What are you doing here?" Apple asks, ignoring the other's observation.

"My father-in-law still works here remember?" Briar smirked raising a brow as she nodded to professor Bad Wolf daintily eating a sandwich on the lawn while he mingled with the other professors, his wife, Red Riding Hood, standing hand in hand beside him. "Cerise wanted to show up to support her parents, as she and Ramona do every year, to enjoy the fact that her family doesn't have to hide their heritage anymore."

"Your wife is quite proud to not have had to follow through with her destiny." Apple observed politely, small talk was the safest route around Briar, the former head of the Rebel faction in school, these days. They still weren't anything that could be considered friends though the animosity between them had lightened up considerably as time went by.

Apple had lost many friends after the Dragon Games, and it had taken years to repair much of her broken relationships, to find that happiness that Raven had spoken of, and Apple knew that she was far happier now than she would have ever been if she had gotten her selfish way all those years ago, despite the headache her mother had proven to be and the heartbreak of losing Raven, who had probably been the most important person in Apple's life at one point, and she knew that she'd grow happier each year as she slowly learned to shift her sense of self and quietly prepare the kingdom for the day when her mother gave up the throne either to her or to Wren (and Snow White _would have no choice_ but to give it up _eventually_ ), and perhaps one day when she found the time… maybe she too would find love, after all there was nothing wrong with falling in love at an older age when she'd be older and wiser and know better ways to avoid royally messing it all up once again.

"I'm glad that she's happy." Apple spoke without turning towards Briar. "She's deserved it after everything she's been through."

"And you?" Briar asks. "Are you happy with this? You aren't terrified anymore of real life and change are you? No lingering resentments about her moving away from destiny?"

"Yes I have conquered my childhood fears." Apple smiles softly, wistfully. "She had taught me to have the strength to walk my own path in life, it is her revolution, her teachings, and her friendship that has led us both here, on the cusp of tradition and the freedom of carving the new generation's own paths in life, and for that I can't help but marvel at this legacy she's helped me build, even if I was blind to this wondrous legacy while she was still with me. We may have to lead different paths in life but in this intricate weave between personal freedom and love of our ancestor's past I will forever support her work and aim to teach the future generations the same."

XXX

"You know that years ago I would have never envisioned that fairytales and my revolutionary ideas could coexist like this." Raven breaks her gaze away from her children and Wren who have decided to wander around in favor of looking at the other children in bewilderment, particularly at a group of maidens who are hugging and laughing with the children from the villain families, and over in another area there is a gaggle of villains who are comforting a terrified boy from one of the Charming clans, things that were not only unheard of in her days at school but also borderline taboo, and that had been after her revolution!

"It's a safer place now." Faybelle agreed. "Far more acceptable for forging friendships and allies instead of being hounded for not acting in character, I'd imagine that it is more interesting too, what with the more recent stories being more lax with the more serious aspects of stories in order to make room for personal freedoms, just take Cedar's little one for example, not a magicked doll at all but a real living breathing boy… I wonder if she'll still send him here even after her decision to cease with her family's involvement in that fairytale…" The fairy trailed off in her musings.

Raven laughed at the whole situation. "It's hilarious how so much has changed since we were young, I hope that the school's staff will be prepared for when more of the children of our generation come through, we were such wild things, can you imagine what the _kids_ of our class will be like?"

"I can image it! I was already living with two of them full time and one half the time! Not to mention my very rebellious wife who still manages to create waves even while being held "captive" by the _Evil Fairy Queen_." Faybelle smirks teasingly.

Raven casts her wife a sly look. "Oh come now, you love it when I make waves with the others and you know it."

"Indeed I do." Faybelle's expression softens. "Love you my rebellious Lady."

"Love you too my wickedly devious captor." Raven grinned as she met Faybelle halfway for a kiss.


End file.
